Recent reviews by TrueEvil

Not for me. I appreciate the novel concept, I think they executed it reasonably well, and the environments are cool. I just didn't find it fun. It's not very interactive besides walking around and pressing A at prompts, making the platforming/navigation very handholdy. I don't like saying that, because I know it comes off as a lazy and reductive criticism - but that's really all it feels like to me.

My feelings towards the DLC very much mirror the way I feel about the base game: there is so much wrong here, and it's somehow still incredible. I don't know how they do it, but I could never in good faith claim that I thought it was anything but amazing as a whole. Every minorly (and majorly) irritating part of this experience can't tear down what an excellent and memorable time I had.

The world is beautifully made, with an incredible presentation and visual style that games with technically better graphics can't hold a candle to. When gaming, I rarely feel the need to admire a view or take screenshots, but I found myself doing so on multiple occasions. The level design of both the legacy dungeons and the open world is top-notch for the most part, with an impressive level of intricacy and a nearly overwhelming number of routes to explore. I'd take a look at something that I thought would be a short detour, and end up falling into a rabbit hole for hours in order to try to see everything. I still don't know for certain if I've unearthed every location after playing it for over 40 hours.

As other people are saying, I do believe that many of the boss encounters could use some tuning, and that the final boss actually NEEDS it. That said, it was still enjoyable to take most of them on, as there's a lot of satisfying and interesting fights. They could be better, but that doesn't mean they're bad. Except all the dragons (except Bayle) and the Furnace Giants - straight to hell for this bunch.

I certainly recommend this to any fans of Elden Ring out there. I found it to be a captivating DLC that I couldn't put down. It's not perfect, but that's never a good reason to deprive oneself of the experience.

PSN no longer required. Rejoice!

This game is quite good. Though the technical state is still rather questionable, it's rather undeniable that it's an absolute blast to play for hours on end. I didn't want to leave a negative review, and I'm rather relieved to be able to change it.

I normally like to write much more when I review games, but I'll let the popularity of this one speak for itself for once.

Definitely good enough to goof off with friends for a while. I've found this game to be more accessible than Lethal Company, and more fun for me as a result. It's less complicated and seems to be more forgiving. This probably affects its appeal as a game to play long-term, especially given the pretty limited map variety, but I don't know if it's really a game that I should be demanding longevity from. It's looking to be one of those games where I get my 20 hours out of it and move on, and I'm pretty happy with that.

Having trouble enjoying this one. In my opinion, it's very unwieldy and awkward to control your character and aim your attacks. Dealing with flying enemies, for example, can be extremely painful, and dealing with swarms can take a long time if you don't want to die, due to constantly having to reposition. Additionally, it seems like it's considerably more common to end up in an unrecoverable run due to RNG or other factors that you have minimal control over. Obviously, both of these issues can be mitigated by playing more and understanding the game better, but I really don't feel compelled to spend my time doing that when I haven't had fun in close to ten hours of gameplay thus far.

There's a few other issues that hamper my enjoyment, but I don't really believe they're responsible for my dislike of this game so far. You can likely find some of them outlined in other negative reviews.

I checked this one out largely because I heard it was somewhat similar to Tunic. It didn't really scratch that itch, but it was a great game nonetheless. For those looking at this title for the same reason, my highly reductionist view is that it's similar to Tunic, with better combat but worse exploration.

The most notable part about this game, in my opinion, is the certain charm it has. Its art direction, soundtrack, and overall world are all lovely, and I found that they all compliment one another very well. There's also some pretty great humor to it, and for the first time I found myself actually checking what the hub NPCs had to say as I continued my journey.

The story was enjoyable, as far as I'm concerned. I'm a pretty terrible judge of a good story in video games, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I found the premise, concepts, and overarching mysteries to be rather intriguing. And, I must reiterate, I actually appreciated the interactions with most of the NPCs, story-related or not. That's not praise I tend to hand out often.

From a gameplay perspective, I thought it was acceptable, if a bit shallow. Enemy variety and movesets felt rather limited overall, and I don't feel that there was highly meaningful progression for the player. Fighting what's virtually the same enemy, the same way, with approximately the same relative stats for the entire game caused me to just run past a lot of encounters out of boredom. That doesn't mean it's all bad - some encounters were interesting to try to tackle with my arsenal, and some of the boss fights were actually pretty interesting. One of them was even challenging!

The level design was also a strong point, I feel. There's a ton of connectedness and shortcuts, making it easy to get around, and ensuring that you're never very far from a checkpoint. There's also a good number of secrets and collectibles to hunt down, including a postgame quest that I'm far too stupid and impatient to figure out. This sweet level design has a big drawback though; there's no map. Which unfortunately means you will probably get pretty lost from time to time, trying to piece together the most efficient way to get to where you're actually looking to go. Still though, I think it's pretty manageable, especially if you are looking out for secrets anyways.

Overall, this is definitely a game I'd say to just try. There's a lot to like here, and even though there are a few weaknesses, I think it'd be an enjoyable experience no matter your gaming background; especially at this price point, and at an almost perfect, bite-sized length that doesn't really run the risk of becoming a slog.

The irrevocable impact that these games and their music has had on me is something I can't really express enough, and I think it's only fair that I rate these soundtracks to reflect that.

The irrevocable impact that these games and their music has had on me is something I can't really express enough, and I think it's only fair that I rate these soundtracks to reflect that.

Game is good again. Returning my review to positive.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Initial review: This is a nice game to just pick up and play. Though it's best with friends, a whole lobby of randoms is still usually quite fun (unless your teammate is AFK). There's some creative gamemodes and maps here, and though I wish there were more of them, I wouldn't say that any two feel the same.

The game feels polished. It just feels like the game is assembled pretty well, which is (unfortunately) quite high praise these days. The two worst things I have to say is that navigating the menu with a controller makes me want to tear my skin off, and the actual balance of weapons/maps could definitely use some adjustment.

The aesthetic and art design is nice. There's a real sense of identity here, and every character has its own, relatively unique look. And the music for every stage works with whatever the theme is, though I can't say anything really stands out to me in this department.

The MTX is more egregious than I'd like for a game that costs $20, but at the end of the day, it is all cosmetic, and you can earn a reasonably high amount of the items and currencies just by playing (until you reach level 100 - it remains to be seen how this will work in the future). Of course, I wish more of these cosmetics were available to you innately, instead of having to "work" for them or pay for them, but it is what it is. I guess the Ori skin feels that much more special when you finally get your hands on it.

Disclaimer: my copy of the game was provided by the publisher/developer. I have been a playtester for Remnant 2 a very significant amount of playtime, and am honored to have been involved in its development in my own small way. I am not sponsored, paid, or otherwise compensated for this review.

Remnant 2. Kicks. Ass. It is a very impressive game that expands on Remnant 1 in ways I could not have expected. I can’t even count the number of times I wished I could tell everyone just how much I love this game as I got to experience it at various stages of development.

The basic gameplay remains roughly the same. Explore crazy worlds, find all sorts of loot, and most importantly, fight vicious monsters. The signature Remnant combat combination of shooter and soulslike elements is every bit as tight and satisfying as before. No need to fix what’s not broken here; this was easily Remnant 1’s best selling point, in my opinion.

Bosses were an area to improve upon from Remnant 1’s base game. And I can say with confidence that they have indeed made great improvements in this area. Generally speaking, minions are used far more sparingly in boss fights, leaving the focus on, you know… the boss. There really are some BANGERS that come with this game. There’s a certain few in particular that I really love… that final boss is in a tier of his own. Just a masterful fight.

This game is very beautiful as well. Not only am I finding its graphics among the most impressive of the games I’ve played to date (which is admittedly not many), the art direction is simply stellar. I’m particularly in love with the castles in Losomn, the exteriors of which had me in awe on my first encounter. Performance though.... yeah.... it's not great. It should run much better than it does. DLSS gets me to 70 FPS or so, but that's what I'd be expecting running this game at native, honestly.

Builds? Yep, we got ‘em. Remnant 2 opens up a lot of new ways to empower your character in the ways you want to, with archetypes, skills, weapon mods, weapon mutators, relics, relic fragments, and like… a bajillion rings and amulets. There’s an ungodly number of choices. The overhauls to archetypes really play a big role here; their impact on the gameplay experience more than dwarfs their influence in Remnant 1.

Replayability is at an all-time high. Besides the unfathomable number of options to build your character, Remnant’s procedural generation has been improved upon to make every playthrough unique. You won’t even start on the same world every time! Everything’s bigger, and there’s so many different things to see and do on every world. And don’t even get me started on the secrets… the real clever, observant people will have a hell of a time playing this game.

Are you still reading this? You shouldn’t be. This game is super awesome, and you should be playing it NOW. GOTY here we come.