Recent reviews by Corp.Shephard

I beat the last boss of Darkest Dungeon 2 today. I really enjoyed it. Fantastic aesthetic and art, great narration as always, and a wonderful soundtrack. The flexible "specializations" and move sets of the characters really let you flex your builds and tactical thinking. If you keep your wits your analysis, learning and experimentation with be rewarded. Though sometimes mysterious enemy buffs were frustrating, I ultimately appreciated that.

This would be a poor game to play while distracted or unfocused though. It demands attention and perseverance but the experience is pretty rich for it.

I admire Red Hook switching things up with the campaign being a run-based rogue-like system compared to the slow and grindy campaign of Darkest Dungeon 1. Sometimes the grindiness of Darkest Dungeon 1 rubbed me the wrong way. In DD2 every run has potential - for learning, improvement and a chance at striking out a milestone boss. I think it works really well.

My stats say I had 19 expeditions and 6 victories, ~50 hours. I suspect that is something like:
1st boss: 3 expeditions, 2 victories ( I think I died my first time, and revisited it in the past)
2nd boss: Likely ~3-4 expeditions, 1 victory. I experimented a bit here, learning and challenging lair mini-bosses recklessly.
3rd boss: This took a while. 10 expeditions, 1 victory seems likely, given the stats.
4th boss: 1 expedition, 1 victory
5th boss: 1 expedition, 1 victory

The third confession boss is controversial and I can't say I loved it. Too much of a puzzle which is not easy to understand and feels like it needs very specific moves to solve reasonably. It does appear to be receiving patches though even now though, which may make it feel less punishing.

You know, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, there's a sort of simple wonder to this game's core "gameplay": teleporting around making and connecting friends. We're all sort of "homestuck" right now. Regardless, breaking out of that and re-connecting with some beloved characters again was a treat.

I loved the sprites of the characters! The writing had me laughing out loud very often. The game takes a lot of swings at emotional topics... and most of these swings pay off, though some blundered for me. Really enjoyable overall, as a fan of the comic.

Dominions 5 is an excellent free-for-all or single player experience whose deep strategic systems and vast options allow for great player expression through gameplay. Building up a nation and crafting a strategy with the many unique faction units, magic spells, and bonuses is great fun.

My primary discontent with this game is that it's combat systems are bad for CO-OP and team games. As someone who enjoys teaming up with friends to tackle difficult AI challenges or even other players the mechanics make allied coordination difficult and often counter productive.

In short, Dominions 5 is a strong game for fans of "Grand Strategy", but an extremely weak co-op experience.