Recent reviews by Babblestorm

I have 1.6k hours in League of Legends and stopped playing it over 5 years ago due to the ELO grind and enjoyment disappearing. However, after 2-3 attempts of installing and playing DOTA for a few hours here and there, it's finally clicked. This game is way more fun and indepth. Being more indepth may be a bit tedious compared to league as it borders on feeling like an item/creep management sim sometimes. Because of needing to understand creep stacking/denying, neutral items to activate, managing couriers, and getting 2 extra abilities to use for any hero from buying a shard and scepter.

If you can get over the extra learning curve compared to LOL, along with the muted art-style, it's a more enjoyable experience. I say more enjoyable because almost every ability in DOTA feels OP compared to league. Some heros can summon several clones of themselves, silence every enemy on the map for several seconds, or stun an enemy over and over if you have enough items.

Which sounds extreme, but in reality, being out of position means you really pay for your mistake, and the game doesn't become one-sided or gets dragged out as often as league because even if you're several kills down, the losing team can still make a comeback because of how hard you can punish an enemy's mistake with spells that almost one-shot, or stuns that last several seconds.

Want an example of the power difference between league and DOTA? Well, in league there's a champ called Shen who has an ult that allows him to teleport to an ally every 2 minutes. In DOTA there's a hero called Nature's Prophet who has a regular ability to teleport ANYWHERE on the map every 30 seconds!

And there's a hero called Rubick, that can steal 2 spells from an enemy hero and use them. Heck, you can even buy a weapon that allows you to control creeps, and there's a weapon you can buy so that ANY hero can teleport the length of the screen every 30 seconds. (Laughs in the face of the summoner spell Flash in League).

It sounds OP, it sounds bonkers, but it makes plays in Dota feel more satisfying and fun, while still being as balanced as league.

I cannot see this game ever coming out of early access in a state much better than it is now unless they totally overhaul the game. The developers seem to have ignored getting the basic mechanics right before creating a fully fleshed out world. This is a major red flag that they aren't in it for the long run and simply rushed something playable to make a quick crash grab.

The sound effects are really jarring and don't fit the theme of the game at all. A Michael Bay noise happens every time you complete part of the initial tutorial. Your foot steps sound random and swap between sounding like you're a bug skittering and wading in a swamp. Gathering cotton sounds like someone hitting a kick-drum.

The animations and combat are very basic. For example, a pig simply slides forward in a static motion and moves its head slightly to hit you. If you hit a mob, a cheesy looking red glow appears.

The concepts of the game seem great, and the screenshots make the game seem immersive and unique. But once you see it all moving it is unfortunately very difficult to appreciate with next-to-no animation and a world that looks like a low textured version of Skyrim. Even Skyrim wasn't popular for its graphics back in 2011, but they are still better than this game.

I would love to be proven wrong about this game but all the signs of what's there make it look like it was a rush of asset and sound creation to create something that would seem unique and look good, simply to sell well on Steam.

If you like hardcore, medieval games then there are plenty of others that are more promising, such as Life is Feudal, Glora Victis and Mortal Online.

Mortal Online is close to everything I want in a game. You can progress in anyway you want to gain fortune and fame, from fishing, to crafting, cooking or becoming a PVP monster or PVE God for soloing a Ratzar Queen.

You level your character's skills in a classless way that determines how you want to play rather than simply getting stronger through grinding. This allows PVE and PVP to be geared towards skill and grouping with others to achieve success.

This game is first person only but it works to its advantage, to bring a game that's more immersive than any other MMORPG since Ultimate Online.

The community is small but this works to its advantage because everyone is in the same world, on the same server and your actions WILL be remembered by other players. If you start pickpocketing, players will remember your name and try to avoid you in the future. This also means interactions are more personal and political alliances in this game actually make an impact in the way you play, down to what towns you should avoid and who you feel you can trust to talk to.

This game has managed to implement concepts (player-created items only and a balanced player-driven marketplace for example) and take them to a level that other MMORPGs can only dream of achieving. This is impressive since the development team are only 3-4 man strong.

If you're a fan of Ultima Online, Runescape or other hardcore MMORPGs for their full loot-drop and criminal systems then Mortal Online is the king of them at the moment. Only time will tell if other games on the horizon will knock MO off its pedestal, such as Life is Feudal, Gloria Victis or Chronicles of Elyria.

The game isn't without its flaws though. The dev team is small so major improvements take a long time. There are bugs and exploits that you will discover once you really get into the game. Fortunately they're not quite enough to stop me from playing.

My biggest bugbears with the game at the moment are:

* Lag spikes while crossing node lines
* Mobs sitting on node lines being invincible
* Blue text exploiting (Members of another guild that you're warred against can leave their guild and attack you without you knowing they're an enemy because their name text is blue instead of orange).
* Characters or pets getting stuck in the environment. Most of the time the /stuck command will get you out though.
* Most of the GMs are unhelpful. For example, report someone for blue text exploiting and they won't get punished.

I really enjoyed Dayz when SA first came out, playing with friends for group PVP. As each update came out I looked forward to the survival and building features that were eventually to come.

Not long after the lockpicking feature came, I started realising that this game wasn't going to be about survival or base building, as it originally intended to be.

I started realising that base building was merely amounting to locking doors and placing a tent down. And the survival aspect was merely about eating enough food to stay alive long enough for a quick session of group PVP.

Yes, the game is nowhere near complete but there is no indication that the base building or survival aspect will be anything more than it is now. There is little reason to get into the survival part of the game unless you're into roleplaying. There is little reason to get into base building since "bases" can be found and looted easily. There is little reason to play for extended periods of time since there is no progression system implemented either.

Dayz has took so long to develop that plenty of other survival games have come out and completed in less time, with more features than what Dayz will have by the time its complete in 1-2 years time. Good examples of this are Rust, Life is Feudal and 7 Days to Die.

Dayz is like the doddering grandad of the survival genre, that's forgot who he is and is not sure where he's meant to be going.

The result of this is a game that started out as a survival game, but ended up being a glorified map for PVP with survival as a side-dish that's gone cold.

Even though I really enjoyed this game to begin with, I feel like the survival genre has moved onto greater things and this game is not something I recommend for newcomers that are expecting the same as what I did 2 years ago.

However, if you want a tactical shooter in the vain of Arma, but you have to spend 30 minutes to get gear beforehand, then this may be the game for you.

Within an hour of playing I came across a few issues that has put me off trying this game again for a while. I will attempt to play it some more in the future but I don't have much patience for game-breaking issues when half of my Steam library is still unplayed.

Pros
- Nice graphics and animations
- Combat is decentish, reminded me of a simpler, 2d version of Dark Souls
- Varied enemies

Cons
- Couldn't get my Xbox controller to work no matter what I did, even though it works fine in Steam Big Picture mode. I had the twin pack of this game and my friend couldn't get his controller to work either.
- The first thing I did was join a co-op game online and within 10 seconds I got stuck inside the scenery so I had to restart the game.
- I tried single player afterwards and when I died 30 minutes into the game, the option came up to be the soldier and my keyboard stopped responding. Couldn't push B to carry on and had to restart the game to get keyboard control back (I have a Razer Blackwidow).

This game is starting to show its age and is only fun if you don't mind playing a game with friends that hasn't innovated beyond WoW, with it's grinding and 1-9 rotation combat system.

I feel this game only has so many positive reviews because it was good when it first came out and it has a fair business model. There are many lesser known MMOs out there that are more innovative and engaging, for example, neverwinter, mortal online and defiance.

Pros
It's free to play and there's no paywalls or microtransactions to hinder you.
Community is generally nice and helpful.
Playing with friends casually is good to pass the time but don't expect engaging quests, combat or storyline.

Cons
Camera movement is tied with character movement. Come on, it's 2015.
Camera is wonky at times, going near a wall makes the camera zoom in so you can't see anything BUT the wall.
Combat is not engaging and is a case of rotating spells until the enemy dies.
Graphics starting to age.

A squad battle arena game where you gain levels and currency to upgrade to better ships and add better modules to it for attributes like cloaking devices and shields. There are 3 factions to choose from (Emperor, Jericho and Federation). Each faction has ships with specific abilities and are better at certain fighting styles than others. (Emperor seem to have stronger ships overall at the time of writing this but I like Federation because of the cloaking device).

Game types are team battle, control beacons and "destroy their captain" style matches. Most matches are very one-sided, with the average game lasting 5-10 minutes. One of the teams usually get slaughtered with very little chance of a comeback. When you are new to the game your first few matches will end quickly, without knowing why.

The battle arenas are fun to do on your own for the first few hours but turn into something that you only want to do every now and again, or with friends.

When you get bored of the arena battles you can "undock" your ship and fly around in a mmo-type world where missions can be completed. It's more fun to go in a squad of 3 or more and do the missions together, or fly somewhere to discover more of the world and fight alien ships for materials.

Overall, the game is a lot more fun with friends, so try and encourage someone else to start playing at the same time you do. Without paying for Eve or Star Citizen, this is the best space game you are going to get when it comes to graphics, playability and size of playerbase.