Recent reviews by Emm

Open world Pokemon done competently.
41 hours to complete the bestiary (it takes about two hours on average to savescum for a specific shiny equivalent which I did again for something I actually wanted) and the majority of postgame content, its worth the twenty bucks.
Monster designs are an aggressively consistent 5/10 though, if you hate "jobmons" avoid like the plague.

doggy sal doggy sal doggy sal doggy sal

Ignoring the obvious flaws in the story, this is not a good game. As someone with 500 collective hours across multiple platforms in BL2, this game cannot compare to it in any way other than graphics (which I suspect will diminish over time due to the stylized visuals of 2).

The different weapon manufacturers all feel homogenized, with Jakobs and Maliwan being the most neutered. The game is also incredibly easy, having unintentionally one lifed the entire main story without using the game journalist mode. Bugs are still rampant, and crashes are all too common months after the release on steam. Readability during fights with more than 2-3 bandits is also at a minimum due to the overabundance of particle effects coupled with shooting/reload animations that can take up to 75% of the screen. I found myself having to back out of fights on multiple occasions simply because I couldn't tell what was even going on as there were so many pointless animations and garish particles in every direction. I don't know why Gearbox has such a boner for not being able to see in their games now, but it does them absolutely no favors.

Pre-Sequel/10 - Should be better than 2, but just isn't.

Spiral Knights is a top-down TLoZ inspired quasi-MMO, where you go floor to floor down the Clockworks, the source of the worlds power. There are many different presets for floors, where you will find several different species of monsters ranging from slimes, wolves, robots, and Gremlins to kill and take their Crowns (currency), Heat (used to upgrade your gear), and materials. There are 3 different Clockwork tiers, with the difficulty and loot increasing as you get deeper and deeper into it. At first, you will only be able to go to the first tier and be forced to go back as you reach small towns in the Clockworks, as they serve as gates for the different tiers. As you progress in the story and upgrade your gear you will be able to access these towns and move on, with there being vendors along the way to sell you useful upgrade blueprints you cant get anywhere else. There are 4 main bosses in the game, with each of them giving tokens once you beat them, and when you get enough you can trade them for very good and useful gear, which very well may make up your arsenal when you approach endgame.

The PvP is a control point mode, where you fight off the other team to take hold of 3-7 points for the longest amount of time. There are 3 different "classes" in PvP, Striker, Stealth, and Shield. Striker removes your shield for a jet boost which can get you from area to area very quickly. Stealth makes you invisible when shielding, with a small radar around you when you get close to someone. Shield amplifies your shield, making it reach around you, shielding your teammates inside it. Unfortunately you are not given any kind of gear for it, and there are no restrictions on what gear you can and cannot use. This means that those who have an extreme amount of money will use items with ungodly stats, which most can only hope to get within a few months or grinding. The PvP is split into 3 tiers like the Clockworks, with each tier corresponding to your gear. Good luck finding a match with anything less than tier 3 Gear however, as it is extremely rare to see anyone not in the tier 3 matchmaking. Technically, this mode is not P2W, as you can buy all these items with Crowns, but it will take so long to get the crowns neccesary you might as well not even try. The meta is also quite bad, with only a few specific items being good, mainly a few of the Boss items, and status inflicting mist bombs. While it is possible to do well without these items, without health boosting trinkets, and ungodly unique variant weapons, you will have a tough time.

Unless you have a friend or two who are already well off and have played for a good amount of time and is willing to play with you, I wouldn't even bother with this game. If you want to play Spiral Knights by yourself, be prepared to do most of it solo, and whatever you do, do NOT pay any money for energy, the games higher tier currency. This is a F2P MMO, so it only makes sense that there will be grind walls inciting you to pay real money. The community is decent, however 90% of everyone you're going to see is people who have spent hundreds, even thousands of hours on this game from years back, who still feel obligated to "play" (aka sit in Haven (the hub world), for hours on end stalking the auction house).

The current owner of the game, Grey Havens, is a small group of people made up of the old owners that are focused on keeping alive the various game servers of their old games. As far as I know, the team is made up of a skeleton crew, and new content is few and far between. The majority of each update is simply adding in more recolored cosmetics, with the occasional new piece of themed gear (i.e. the year of the dog introduced some new dog cosmetics, as well as a reskinned weapon). From what I know the majority of profits gained through these boxes are used to keep this and a few other game's servers alive, and for that reason I dont believe that Grey Havens should be yelled at or anything. They do care about the game, otherwise the servers would have been closed years ago.

Do I regret putting so much time and energy into this game? I wouldn't say so, as it has brought me many hours of enjoyment and a few short term friends along the way. However, at the current state it is in, I can't recommend playing it right now. Even now, I only ever boot up the game (which can take up to an HOUR as the game doesn't update on its own, and only starts updating when you run the game, something that should have been fixed years ago) to check up on any season events going on. If you are new to this game, the first time you boot up the see Haven at dusk, covered in Halloween garb, or in a snowy wonderland at Christmas time, it is quite magical, and I've had some of the most fun just fooling around in Haven during then. For now though, stay away from this game unless you have some friends to help you along the way. The population is dying and any friends you make will most likely be gone in only a few days, never to be seen again. If you do wish to play however, I can only hope you have a fraction of the fun I've had in my early days, and I wish you luck.