Recent reviews by Donkeyoatay

I guess I'm a good advert for the benefit of free weekends as I had been on the fence about this game, having loved both Ori games but seeing that some of the early reviews were a bit mixed, but after trying it for a few hours, any doubt has gone.

A mix of fantastic visuals, interesting exploration and progression, decent combat with a variety of styles and difficulty options if you need it. Hopefully there will be some optimisation as it moves towards 1.0 as even with a 5070 it struggles to stay above 60fps at 1440p for me in some areas.

Great already and I can only see it getting better, much as BG3 did throughout early access

Why this game didn't get the same reception and reviews as other similar Sony games, like God Of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Last of Us etc, I'm really not sure. I've played and enjoyed them all and this one ranks right up there.

Looks great, combat and stealth are good, riding the bike is fun, progression is well judged and meaningful, story is fine if you are happy with standard zombie apocalypses and the acting and characters are all well done.

It is long though, so if you're looking for something you can rip through quickly, this isn't for you probably. That said, I'm often quite quick to give up on games once they go past 30 hours but this one has yet to outstay its welcome. Given how cheap it can often be bought for, its a steal.

Really enjoying it so far. Graphics and UI are lovely and performance is good on my fairly aging PC. Good inventory and crafting management that has learnt from all of the QOL improvements from similar titles (being able to craft from chests, transferring similar items from your inventory, stuff like that).
I can definitely see myself playing this for as long as I have played Valheim (so far) and maybe even beyond that, especially as the devs seem to be adding things at a fair pace.

Only played three missions so far, but really quite impressed. I'm playing solo, so for the most part my AI colleagues are taking care of most of the business for me and doing it well, clearing rooms, securing suspects and evidence, often without the need for me to give them direct orders. I stay at the back for the most part and handle strategy and support, but do occasionally have to shoot someone or restrain a civilian.

Maybe the people complaining about the suspect AI are playing multiplayer, or leading from the front (which given the comments from my AI team when I try and do this, is not what you are supposed to do) but I haven't seen any issues so far particularly. Maybe in later missions it is more obvious.

If the devs keep going, fix any issues and add content, then this should become the definitive tactical shooter - especially given what seems to be robust mod support.

Loved both the Divinity Original Sin and Baldurs Gate games and this seems to combine everything that was best about both those series into a single enormous game. The production values are amazing, the acting is great, the plot so far is well written and the turn based combat is varied and as complex as you want it to be (and I much prefer it to RTWP).

My only slight quibble is that the tutorial is a bit lacking (which is odd as the tool tips are incredibly well done) and if you don't know D&D 5th edition, like me, you may find yourself having to look quite a lot up online to start with. Other than that, sometimes the cheer amount of choice can be a bit overwhelming, but it's hard to call that a negative.

This is the only game I've paid full price for at release for about 5 years now and it's more than worth it. I'm glad I resisted Early Access so I can experience it properly with the first playthrough.

What a great little game, not too long and not too hard but with a great gameplay loop of exploring, digging and upgrading. I found it hard to put it down once I started.

Hoping the second one is just as good.

I didn't want XCom 2 with a Marvel skin and thankfully this is different enough to be a new experience whilst still retaining a lot of the turn-based XCom DNA you'd expect from the Firaxis team.

I've never been a fan of deck builders, but the way this integrates it into the strategy whilst also giving you a few other options like the movement and environmental attacks makes it far more than a card game and also takes out almost all of the RNG that could often make XCom very frustrating. I was worried that the wandering around talking to heroes bit would get boring quickly, but it's actually quite engaging (and if you want to skip the chat and just treat it as just a global strategy layer then you can).

All in all, it's a really good turn based strategy game with a card game twist and a Marvel layer on top. Well worth your time and money.

First FromSoft game and not as hard as I was worried would be the case (but still not easy). A great open world game for anyone who has grown tired of the Ubi formula and wants exploration with a sense of peril and wonder, rather than ticking icons off a list. Lots of stuff to do and collect, decent variety of weapons, enemies and scenery. Well worth your time if you are on the fence at all.

Meh. I was hoping this might be a bit different to the usual action RPG\MMO fare but it's not. Looks nice, but you can barely see what your character is doing during fights and it seems to be case of mashing the attack button and the special attack keys until you destroy everything (and all of the attacks are fairly much the same). Maybe it gets better, but my time is limited and this isn't worth any more of it.

Not for me I'm afraid. The story is just confused and too weird, things seem to wear out and run out too quickly and the graphics are too indistinct to make stuff out properly. Shame, as clearly lots of people like it and I hoped I would too.