Recent reviews by Sheyon

What a neat game! I'm a big fan of rhythm games in general, and this one is just so beautiful and chill and satisfying. Great to unwind to at the end of the day. But the biggest draw for me was being able to import my own music. I'll be playing quite a bit of Final Fantasy and Cytus in this one.

Do you like big, stompy robots? Do you like making oodles of cash? Do you like chill synthwave music? Have I got the game for YOU!

A good pirate-y adventure. Hits all the right notes: sailing the high seas, sea witches, curses, voodoo, booty, a one-eyed protagonist, and your health potions are grog and rum. It's a direct sequel of the first Risen, so it -might- behoove you to play through that first... if you've got 40 hours to spare. (That itself ain't a bad game. A solid 7/10, but it is rather clunky.) But if you just want to jump into good old pirate-y fun, then sure. Risen 2's adventure is pretty self-contained, but some details and events and characters from the previous game will seep through. Just know that you saved the world in the last game, you're a little washed up now, but now you're going to save the world again with your kickass pirate (girl-)friend.

The combat's a little difficult at first, but once start upgrading your skills and learn to keep moving it becomes easier. Hang on to Patty as long as you can to soak up that XP on the first island.

Arrr!

Not every game that defined a genre is worth playing.

Honestly, I'd give this game a neutral rating if I could. The story is passable. The visuals, the music, the voice acting are all great -- and might be worth the price of admission to some. But the gameplay... wow. It is CLUNKY. You don't always grab the ledge you need unless you come at it JUST right, so you may be constantly falling on your back into the abyss because ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ FAITH I PRESSED THE BUTTON WHY DIDN'T YOU GRAB. And this game should not have had combat at all; it's just so bad. I understand the game probably wants you to run pass the enemies, and I did, but there is at least one spot where you cannot progress unless you engage (and there's probably a few others... or else your life will be considerably harder if you don't deal with the bad guys first). And IMO, the gunplay itself just feels off, mechanically and thematically. Literally every other FPS handles guns better, there was no need to re-invent the wheel. Other issues: there is an on-start crash you need to deal with, plus you should disable the outdated PhyX which causes -massive- frame drops indoors.

I have a high tolerance for aged games, generally, but I found this game more frustrating than enjoyable. If it's on sale, it's a toss-up if it might be worth your time.

It's Skyrim. But it's CATS.
And puns. And oh, lordy, the cat puns.

Do you like cute cats (and dogs)?
Do you like puns?
Do you just want to chill out by hacking and slashing your way through a cattoony fantasy world?

Dawg, do I have the game for YOU!

A good game but not without some flaws.

I was thoroughly engrossed by the story and exploration. And if you don't explore, you will miss out on quite a bit of the story. There are little nooks and secrets everywhere. And piece by piece you gain a picture of what happened on this planet that wants to kill you at every turn.

If you come in looking for a fast-paced action game, though, you may be disappointed. This game is a slow burn. You start out knowing nothing, able to carry very little, and have to scrounge up items to survive. Later, almost all of this is rectified, rendering the difficulty to almost trivial.

That said, the survival elements are already very lite. You can ramp it up for more of a challenge or adjust them down to zero if you just want to see the sights -- and there is a lot. The world is huge (and pretty and dangerous), almost too big and full of fetch quests and you end up doing a lot of backtracking, but you can eventually learn the lay of the land, even without maps. And with sprint boosts and careful use of the teleporter, you can cross to where you need in little time.

The ending? Not the strongest finish. Slightly frustrating, even. But it does leave room for the imagination and a future story. If there is a Solus 2, I'm definitely buying it.

TLDR: Story-focused exploration game. An imperfect gem, but well-worth appreciating.

If you are looking for a game with a good story, then ignore my rating and just play the game. The atmosphere is simply the best in any game I've ever played. The story is deep, intricate and doesn't hand everything to you on a silver platter. Yes, you are required to think and perhaps even research if you don't resort to mission guides. Just don't expect snappy updates to the story, given that development moves at a snail's pace. (The latest South Africa update came THREE YEARS after the last Story Mission encounter in Tokyo.)

Now, if after you have finished the story and/or you are looking for anything else -- RP, PVP, endgame PVE -- move along.

RP - First you may be beset by numerous very irritating quirks about this "reboot" that has made RP less-than-fun. The reticle targeting is extraordinarily clumsy and intrusive; until you get used to it, your character may be rotating like a clueless spaz or accidentally shooting your partner's face with a shotgun or staring at someone creepily just to inspect them or read their RP profile (which is a modded feature, BTW). Then if you combine the level gating of the play zones with very low instance caps, if you have any sort of event going on where you expect more than 10 people to show up and they are not all the same level, your venues are Agartha or the Faction cities -- and that's it.

But let me expand upon the instance caps, because the over-fracturing of the game world is a near-deathknell for open world RP. Simply put, do not expect to find open world RP. At all. Gone are the days when you could stumble upon a radio show at the skate park or a wedding in the Shadowy Forest. If you don't engage in forums, social media like Discord or Twitter, or in-game chat channels, or install mods to even find other roleplayers, tough luck. If this gives you anxiety, I'm sorry. But you need to be a self-starter and find out where people are, otherwise you are fighting an uphill battle. RP will not just fall into your lap because you took a slow RP-walk around what may be an empty hub city.

Now this doesn't mean you can't have a meaningful RP experience if you decide to settle here. It just means you really need to work for it.

PVP - The original Secret World had three mini-games and one persistant warzone. SWL has ONE mini-game, which gives lackluster rewards and hardly even pops unless there is some sort of event going on. If faction pride and competition are important to you, move along. PvP was stated not to be a priority for the developers, therefore I have no hope they will even bring back the old game modes, much less devote their already-scant resources to implement fun/meaningful PvP progression.

PVE - If endgame is your thing, be prepared to grind. And grind. And grind. And grind. And grind some more. If you complained about the AEGIS grind in the previous game, move along. The talisman+glyph+signet grind here makes the AEGIS system and perhaps any Asian MMO blush. And if you made a mistake in your gear, well, you probably just wasted weeks, if not months of your time, nevermind that any corrected gear or new upgrade is not immediately usable until you grind it back up from zero. Seriously, how do you mess up gearing mechanics so much that you actually DREAD getting upgrades?

I can generally forgive a grind (MMOs are, by nature, grindy), but the system in place here is far too much; and worse, it is a BORING grind. Build and role variety is utterly anemic, if not outright broken. (If you like to play a healer, be prepared to be asked to DPS because the self-sustaining tank doesn't need you at all -- a side effect of Funcom's poor re-balancing.) You are grinding for the sake of grinding to ascend through 10 levels of the same 5 dungeons over and over and over again. And 10 levels means they have stratified the already-tiny playerbase ten. times. over. So unless you already have people or are willing to PuG below your level, good luck finding groups.

Oh, just so you know, the Secret World originally had ten dungeons. Three of these have not been re-integrated into endgame and two are not even in SWL at all! Furthermore, did you know that these two missing dungeons actually contribute to the main story? ... You really don't know what you're missing until one of the villains is yelling at you for seemingly no reason, and they really have no plans to put them back in.

Love or hate the simplified build system and reticle combat (I hate it), this relaunch didn't come without a price.

And I can go on and on. I put 5000+ hours into TSW when it was B2P, participated heavily in RP, PvP, and PvE. SWL now is a game bereft of fun and soul, replaced with endless, tedious grinding, same-y events, empty hopes, and a plethora of microtransactions and RNG lootboxes. (Admittedly, you can play all story content without paying a single dime, but the ubiquity and smell of the cash-grabbing is rather off-putting). I only bother with SWL for the few RP friends I have left, but even they don't play regularly anymore. And most of my PvP and dungeon/raid buddies are already long gone. If you are going to play this game, play it for the story...

And then move along.

Thoughts about the story have been better covered by other reviewers, but I will say it is very well-written and very deep. It can easily change the way you think about humans and humanity and the future of artificial intelligence. You only need to stroll over to the original Talos Principle store page to get a better idea.

Now for the VR aspects...

I played the flat version (several times) and earned every achievement possible. I was hyped for the VR version, and I was NOT disappointed.

Even remembering the gist of the beginning levels, the gameplay did not feel stale at all. In fact, completing the puzzles by hand and in person added a whole new freshness that makes me rather excited to go through the game again and seeing things from a whole new perspective.

Even if you are coming in without having played the original, this is a game that should be in your library. IMO, this is one of the most polished VR experiences to date and a very solid example of how VR games can and should be. It is incredibly immersive and the controls very intuitive.

Highly recommended.

If you get tired of the puzzles, just sit down, see the sights, and smell the artificial roses. And they are aplenty.

This is a very pretty game. The story, the visuals, the music, the mechanics all just come together so nicely into a very polished experience. The maps are large and filled with puzzles and secrets. And Ori and her friends are just too cute.

That said, it can be difficult in some areas. The 'escape' sequences require quite a bit of precision. If you mess up, you die and you have restart the sequence from the beginning. If you are a 'clumsy' gamer or if reflexes are not your strong point, it is far too easy to become stuck and turn off the game in frustration. However persistance and practice will usually win the day.