Recent reviews by Ava Sans Frontières

GOTY 2024

This game is a blast. Straight up.

It's pretty good innit

I think the game is fun, and I do recommend it - but with a huge caveat.

The game is currently quite buggy. It's prone to crashing or failing to contact servers. When it works, great. When it doesn't... Well, I'd rather it just did.
There's no real meaningful SP mode. SP campaign is fun. But there's no consistent SP gameplay outside this. Which is a shame; because I personally would just prefer SP to MP.
Finally; the MTX model is pretty much just evil. You have to buy individual pieces of equipment for individual players. And the prices aren't exactly low. I don't mind the concept here, but the price-to-execution is very predatory.

I think at its core, it's great. I haven't played the previous entries so I have no past experience to compare to. But it's very beta-esque. It needs work. A lot of work. I could just ignore the MTX if it had meaningful SP content and wasn't so buggy, but as it is, it's just icing on the cake.
So I recommend it, yes; but I also recommend waiting if you do want to get it. Or get it at a reduced price. True, it's not expensive to begin with. But be wary.

Easily the best Tide game there is, and just hands down one of the best W40K games.

Great atmosphere, ambience, gameplay, and visuals. And that's not even touching on the masterpiece that is the soundtrack and audio.

I adore this game.

Game looks like wet clay and poop mixed together on High settings. I'm sorry I don't have a 3090 BFG.
And this is coming from Greedfall which not only looked way better, but also ran way better.
Not sure what went wrong.

On top of that, the combat feels nonresponsive and impactless.

I was really interested in getting to play this game. And after 20 minutes I just felt bored and completely unhooked. Not only that, but the prospect that I had to run around on what looks like wet, low-texture clay for the rest of the game, I'm going to pass.

What the ♥♥♥♥ Paradox. I know your DLC practices are horrendous, but this is outright abominable.

One of if not the best settlement management games present.
As of writing, it's still in Early Access. But even then I strongly prefer this to the competition.
The devs are also quite active and have addressed a lot of the game's issues.

I fully recommend trying out Farthest Frontier.

I completely see how people might be turned off by the ancient graphics and the clunky movement/combat.
However what lies beneath is a true passion project that manages to pull off what it sets out to do incredibly well.
It's charming. It's fun. It's challenging.

I fully recommend it, if you're into ARPGs or survival RPGs. Be aware that it is definitely not for everyone.

Do you like animals? Do you like zoo sims?

I mean it's basically what's on the package. Controls can be a bit overwhelming to new players, especially if you seek to construct something elaborate. But it's a solid experience.
The animals are really masterfully done.
The mechanics work nicely.

The soundtrack can quickly become quite repetitive, which is probably the only negative I have. But then, just turn it off and listen to something else.
Oh, also the game can start to chug when you get to a high amount of guests. But I guess that's just how it is.

Either way, I recommend it.

Something is rising.

This game is great. Doesn't even feel like it's early access.

Think of it like a mix of survival crafting RPG, a la Conan Exiles, et cetera - with the combat of a top-down action RPG, a la Diablo.
A lot of features might seem minor but they just make sense for playing as a vampire. Locking people in cages to harvest their blood, sun damages you, garlic affects you, silver, disguising yourself as human, sleeping in coffins. The game comes across as competently made and well-thought out and executed. Imagine; what would a vampire do or need in this situation? Likely that's what's done in the game, instead of just some cheaper default game feature. And it works really well.

Art direction is crisp. Vampires in this game remind me of humans in the Jak and Daxter franchise. So that's a great throwback. And then you add the whole Castlevania/Legacy of Kain aesthetic on top and you've got a solid vampiritopia.

Difficulty is also well tuned. Bosses can be hard but never feel unfair - I'm playing on Hard difficulty and I do recommend this as base. I haven't played on lower difficulty servers, but if this is Hard, I don't recommend trying Normal. Might get too easy. But yes, as a player on Hard I recommend the game.

Also the game runs really well. Like, >really< well.
I recommend it.