Recent reviews by HERETiC

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Terrible optimization.
Nothing else needs to be reviewed on this 10 years old game...

Finished the whole thing on patches 1.0.2 - 1.0.3.
I had to play it on low-medium settings even tho my PC is above minimal specs.

Game crashed twice - both times right after picking new weapon and putting it in the backpack.
If it keeps crashing for you, try sacrificing looks for performance until it's (hopefully) fixed.

Camera jitter, that they claim has been fixed in 1.0.2.1 is still present for me.
Setting mouse to raw input and locking the framerate to 60 helped to reduce it.
After this I also had no issues that are mentioned in the patch notes as "caused by higher FPS".

That's what we get when games are being developed primarily for inferior systems.

♥♥♥♥ consoles.


Note to self:
I'll definetely replay this in the future when it gets all the optimization patches and change the review.
I really hope it happens.
The game deserves it.

The hype hurt this game so bad.
It was presented like something that will revolutionize the way games are being made and played. Truth is we "only" got a great game that will be known as something that was worth waiting for.
Is it something we've never seen? No.
It's something we've seen many times, but never mixed in one masterpiece - a mix of Deus Ex, GTA, Borderlands and Mass Effect in an open world in which Mad Max meets Bladerunner while you run around the city solving crimes like a violent version of Batman.

What's there not to like?

The stories in this game are well-written. Yes, stories - plural.
Besides the wonderful main story there are many side stories. Some are just classic clichés and others have a potential to be a base for a separate game.
If you don't care about side stories and you just dash through the main story, the game will be short and you will be disappointed.
You have to spend your time on helping others to fully immerse into the world and the game will reward you with satisfying and unforgettable ending.

It's definitely worth it.


My last advice if you're not sure that it's worth playing:
Don't let console peasants and people who brainlessly throw money on AC/CoD/FIFA/NFS talk you away from this masterpiece. They either can't run it or refuse to invest their precious time to fully dive into it's well designed world.
What? Glitches and bugs are ruining their gaming experiences? These are the same players that were willing to suck Todd Howard's d*ck whilst playing his bugged mess built on 5 years old recycled engine back in 2011...
The game of the year that has game-breaking bugs till this day.
The game that we respected and loved playing even with it's many flaws.
So why hold yourself back and listen to their exaggerated hatred?

Either you love to have the shiniest collection of the most expensive skins or you'd like to learn Russian in 4 weeks, this game is for you!

And it also comes with some competitive multiplayer game or whatnot... so that's also a plus.

The most unique game I've ever played.
Top notch gameplay, ageless graphics and a well written story full of characters you'll fall in love with.

10/10 with no doubt

(11/10 for Slovaks/Czechs playing it with Czech dubbing)

Competetive game perfectly designed to be played by ten people that hate each other.

Plot twist: it's team based.

Twenty rounds of pure pain. Multiplied by three.

Yes, one round consists of five waves, so that seems like 100 waves (if you don't die).
But in fact, after every five rounds, there is another one group of enemies spawned in each wave, so in the end you have to fight around 200 "waves". If you don't die. And you'll be dying a lot, because it's not just regular shooting. Enemies will get stronger every round, starting with -4% health (+2% for every round, total +34% in 20th round), -6% damage (+3%, +51%) and -8% shields (+4%, +68%). Also Moxxi will choose rules at the start of each round, starting with one rule in 2nd round and then adding another rule in 5th, 10th and 15th round. One of these rules will change at start of every wave (except the last wave).There are 19 rules and most of them will make your enemies even stronger (more damage, health, shield, accuracy) and you weaker (no shield, loosing health, no critical hits), but there are also few that will help you in some way (enhancing specific weapon type, making you stronger but less accurate). As you know, there are five waves in every round and they are always of the same type (but with different enemies): starting wave (bandits, psychos, skags), gun wave (only enemies with guns, obviously), horde wave (only psychos), badass wave (stronger versions of regular enemies) and a boss wave (random boss seen in original game, usually with some henchmen). Finish the 5th wave and then repeat it again with stronger enemies, more than twenty times. And then go do it again in another arena - there are totally three arenas (luckily): Hell-Burbia (small arena, with many buildings and no guardians spawning), The Angelic Ruins (large, flat, snowy arena with no elevated point) and The Gully (medium sized arena with nice sniping spots and a teleport on each side).

I finished it all in singleplayer with my 69 level Siren equipped with SMG (50 skill, ~320 dmg, 4x fire) and a shotgun (45 skill, ~120x7 dmg, 4x corrosive) - both legendaries from Crawmerax -it took me about 80 minutes for the first ten rounds, which are the easy ones and if you aren't unlucky (getting killed behind some obstacles, where you can't get second chance), you won't die here.
The next five rounds (11-15) are a real challenge - in every arena I died at least once here. Death in any round in any wave will put you back to the first wave of previous round.
After beating 15th round, there are two more rounds (16-17) that are really hard and if you didn't die 'till now, this is the time when you will. If you die more than two times, get ready to become really and I mean REALLY ANGRY - like Hulk angry, when you start smashing stuff, destroying buildings, cities, planets and killing unicorns for no reason.
The 17th round should be the last one, but someone in Gearbox, someone with sado-maso level over 9000 thought it just isn't the right time to end, so there are another three rounds. If 17th round was hard, this is something like hell, but tougher. In these rounds even Chuck Norris begins to sweat. Your carpal tunnel will hurt, your anger becomes desperate sadness and noone will understand you through your tears. You don't believe me? Try to play 20th round with no shield, faster, tougher enemies and no bonus damage from critical strikes, then you'll see I was right. 'Cause I was there. And I was there more than once. You merely adopted the arena. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the achievement pop out until I was already a wreck, by then it was nothing to me. And it cost me about 5-7 hours of my life for each arena.

So, if you play only singleplayer and you don't care about getting every achievement, don't play it - you'll go mad! If you play singleplayer, but you want every achievement, good luck to you. And finally - if you play with friends or if you are a real psycho, it might be fun. Repetitive, frustrating fun.

After ten years it's still one of the best games out there!