Recent reviews by 🦎

At first, the game may lead you to believe it's a dark dystopian rpg, where hard choices will have to be made between doing the right thing and staying alive. But that's not true. It's more of a visual novel about having compassion and empathy and hope, about finding a reason to keep going in a broken world that's not getting any better. Relevant stuff.

When I opened reviews before deciding to purchase the game, I was confused at a number of "recommended but..." reviews. So here I am roughly 50 hours later doing exactly the same thing.

Some of my relevant background includes over 500 hours played between pillars 1 and 2, I'm absolutely in love with the world of Eora, and all the lore and all the little details that make it special. I still remember the moment I've read the news that there will never be pillars 3 and how devastated I was. And from that background this game is a treat. It wasn't retconed, it wasn't ruined by a new team of writers that didn't bother learning what came before, etc. None of the typical issues we see with modern sequels to beloved games. I felt like I was back in the world I love, and this world was being expanded in a way that makes sense with everything that came before.

But...

Can this game stand on it's own? Not breaking established things is good, an old player will not be bothered by inconsistencies. But what about a new player? If they haven't played 200+ hours of previous games, can this game serve as an introduction to this awesome world? I doubt it. I think for anyone not familiar with pillars this game will look just like some generic fantasy because it doesn't do enough to distinguish itself. And this is truly tragic, the world of Eora deserved better.

So yeah, I guess if you're megafan of pillars and/or didn't mind what outer world was on release, and you can afford $70 on a game you will be done with in a week - go for it. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I don't regret my purchase. If, however, you have any conserns whatsoever - don't buy it. Wait until there's some kind of GOTY edition with multiple DLCs bundled in and maybe even a discount on top of that. Buy pillars 2 instead, it's $30 cheaper and about 10 times larger in any way you can measure it.

The game is fun.

I love RPGs, and Obsidian RPGs in particular. I don't know how this game escaped me for so long. Played it all in almost one breath, with only single hiccup being Bastard's Would DLC, I couldn't wait to be done with it, but other than that the game is great.
Some reviews called it short, but I finished it in 43 hours, which is decent (not saying that I would mind 40 more hours).
It's also pretty easy, I'm not a big fan of reatime-with-pause combat, so I played on normal. And while early game required proper group composition and micro-management, by the end I neglected consumables, healers, spell crafting, gear and let combat resolve itself for anything but boss fights.
There is a lot of reading, which might be hard after games like PoE2, but that's the reality of indie RPGs, not every project can afford dozens of hours of voice acting.

All in all, great game, do play. Feel free to ignore DLCs, they aren't worth it.

It's a very good game.

I came in without many expectations, I was bored and both my friends and youtubers I watched recommended it many times.
There are many things that put me off initially. I don't like fantasy setting, I think it was overused and looks really generic to me. Also never before did I enjoy an action RPG, I prefer CRPGs with strategical turn based combat. After starting it few more things felt off, mostly the story and probably because game wasn't originally written in English.
But after just few hours I was hooked. The setting was far from generic, instead of usual medieval world of fantasy where every weird thing is explained by "idk dude, magic" I got 17th century Europe with very little magical influence on the lore. Combat is also solid, it is the first action RPG that made me think: "hey, perhaps they can be good, maybe I was wrong by casting games aside just because they feature action combat." And writing didn't take long to get used to either.

There are downsides, of course. Major one are the choices, there are definitely many of them and they surely affect the story, but for me all of them felt really obvious and aligned with my moral compass perfectly, by the end I didn't regret a single thing about the choices I made. It didn't give me enough chances to fail at anything really, there weren't any dilemmas, every choice was between correct option, wrong option and skipping the choice entirely. I don't know if it will be like this for everyone, but for this reason alone I don't feel like picking up this game for the second playthrough any time soon, as the only difference I can make is to play a different class.
The story is still good, but I would consider it more on a linear side than a typical RPG branching story. I might have been spoiled by games like Divinity:Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity. There are some technical issues too, ranging from bad facial animation to followers not following me into battle. But they weren't nearly enough to make me not enjoy every single hour I spent in the game.

In conclusion, graphics are great, combat is great, story is good, game is fun. I would recommend it to anyone interested in RPGs.

This is a wonderful little game. It may not be long (took me almost 4 hours to complete) but it's definetely worth the time. Art is beautiful and so is music. And it definetely isn't a walking simulator (which is ok with me, but some people dislike that), puzzles are decent too.
Only thing I want after playing it is more.

You know when you finish something (game, TV series, book, etc.) and you sad that it's over? This is the game like that.
I guess it's called "walking simulator" that turns into thriller and even horror later. It might not be for everyone, but if you like narrative driven games, it's the game you shouldn't miss

This is art.

I really can't explain alot, but I can say for sure, I don't remember other game or even other piece of media having such emotional feedback in me. It's not long and and it doesn't have conventional gameplay in it, there are one-off mechanics that only used once even though many games would have built much around it. But it's worth its price many times over, and you just have to experience it for yourself.

Imagine that, in the age of games being "too expensive to make", when games are being butchered just so they can fit microtransactions, and "live services." There comes Ninja Theory, creates game AAA in everything but name, and just sells it for $40, making profit. Almost as if we don't really need AAA publishers, and if we let developers for themselves - they will create art instead of scheme for sucking money out of players. Huh...

This above is the reason I loved this game since it released, however I wasn't planning on playing it because I thought it was horror game. I found out it isn't just few days ago and bought it and started playing instantly. Funny enough, after playing it, part when fighting isn't an option and everything is spooky is my favorite part. It's scary done right, it's not usual "tension->screamer->running->repeat" cycle of horror game that I dislike, it's more of Alien Isolation scary, which is best type of scary.

Game looks beautiful, I wish I could play it on higher graphics, but my PC just couldn't handle it. All exteriors look alive, there wasn't a place that I though was bland. Voice acting is awesome. If there is a game with better facial animation, I didn't see it. I really liked the puzzles, reality bending portals like Antichamber, but in much more realisting setting. This all is fun.

Story itself is good too. Celtic warrior on a quest to the land of Norse gods, seeking revenge. Except Senua is mentally ill, she hears voices, she sees visions, and you will never know what actually is happening, but you accept it all, and so does she, because there is no other choice.
It might not be the best thing ever, but it got me thinking and that's as much as I can ask from the medium. It poses important questions: not what is real and what isn't, we've all seen that before, but what "real" IS in the first place? If you are the only one to have an experience, does this experience become any less because of it? You never know what other people experience or think, or if things exist or not, the single thing you can be certain of is your mind, "I think therfore I am," and in that case, why voices in your head or visions you see with your eyes closed would count less real than anything else?

However, this game isn't perfect. Combat is designed for sole reason: to be pretty. It's not challenging, it's not fun at times and apart from boss battles I just wished it was over already and I could progress. The fact that there are just 4 types of enemies in entire game doesn't help either. I've also encountered a bug that wouldn't let me progres, this almost caused me to drop game entirely. Live action cutscenes looked really out of place, and thinking about it, there is only one animated character: Senua. Enemies are all just mannequins and friendly characters are live action footage.

Overall, I think this game is fun, I like it alot and would recommend it to anybody thinking it might be their thing. It's niche, but it's good that this game exists

If you played first game (and you should), you know how this one ends. It's sad, it's really really sad, it leaves bitter aftertaste, and then you go and play bonus episode and... Well, just don't expect happy ends, ok? And I tell you this as a person who honestly considered "bae over bay" a happy end in first game.
But it's not bad, it's really good actually, and if you liked first game, you will certainly like this one. Just don't expect having smile on your face once you complete it

I didn't think you could make something as great as Transistor (game I love so much, I bought it on both PC and PS4 and completed about 15 times across both systems), they did.
Thanks for the masterpiece, supergiant games