Neue Rezensionen von Katangen

The sad reality of my experience with Friday the 13th: The Game is that I’ve been aware of its existence ever since it launched back in 2017. For a while, it was the main game of a streamer I used to watch, his streams being my favorite thing to come back from school to. Yet, I never got to play it in its prime. Fast forward a couple of years and support for the game has been discontinued, due to some stupid lawsuit, making me lose interest in the game completely. However, having noticed it was on a hefty discount this past December, I simply couldn’t pass it up.

What I found was a game that is as fun to play as it was to watch all those years ago, but in a state where actually getting to play it as it’s meant to be played is an awful chore. This isn’t due to bugs or anything that the developers had done prior to being forced to abandon it, but rather what they hadn’t.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2729769832

Friday the 13th: The Game, based on the films of the same name (sans The Game) is an asymmetrical horror game, pitching seven camp counselors against the iconic killer, Jason Voorhees. That is, if you manage to get into a lobby that isn’t modded. Then it pitches like 20 counselors against five Jasons.

No beating around the bush, the game has a huge “modded lobbies” problem. There’s no lobby browser, so you’re at the mercy of the matchmaking to get placed into an unmodded lobby, hosted by another player. You could opt to host yourself, but then you’re just further splitting the already miserable player base.

“Hold on, modded lobbies?”, you think to yourself, “Why, that doesn’t sound so bad!”. And I’d agree with you, if there was still a way to have the intended experience, without having to jump through hoops. Not only do these lobbies make the game run awfully, but they also ruin the balance and have inflated XP rewards, which ruin any sense of progression the game has. I have scoured the internet in search of communities that still organize legit matches, and while I have discovered that the game’s official Discord is still a good place to get one going, not once did I come across a person who enjoys these lobbies being a thing. Why and who they’re up for is a mystery to me.

There is a single-player mode, but rarely is playing against bots as fun. That, and you’ll be missing out on playing as the counselors, the more fun half of the game in my opinion.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2729767235

If you’re playing on the side of the counselors, your goal will be to escape the map. This can be done in one of five ways, such as repairing broken vehicles to drive away in. There’s always a strategy at play here, which is what makes it more interesting, if at all, when compared to other asymmetric PvP titles.

Your plans might depend on a couple of factors: your selected counselor, the items you find, and your perks. Yes, the counselor you play as isn’t just an avatar, as each of them has different stats. If a counselor has a high repair stat, they’ll have an easier time with the repair mini-game that happens when fixing vehicles or the fuse box to the phone you use to call the police with. If they have a high stealth stat, Jason will have a harder time tracking them.
Sneaking and running around isn’t the only way of avoiding him, as evident by the strength stat - the higher it is, the more damage will a counselor inflict on Jason or have an easier time knocking him down.To do so, you’ll need weapons, which aren’t the only thing you’ll be able to find as you move around the camp. There are plenty of useful items, such as beartraps that stun Jason should he step on one, firecrackers that can throw him off, health sprays, flare guns, the various parts you’ll need to fix things, etc.

The last thing to keep in mind are perks, which can be equipped as you see fit and are in no way restricted based on which counselor you’re playing as. I find their implementation a bit lazy, but they do alter your gameplay in notable ways. Outside of a match, you can spend the unfortunately named CP (Camp points?) to roll for a perk. This will, alongside the main effect of the perk, provide it with two random percentage-based modifiers; a positive and a negative one. For example, one perk will let you start with a health spray, increase the amount of healing you receive, but also increase the amount of damage you take. There are many more, but you get the picture. Perks will come in six different rarities, depending on how high the numbers are, from poor to legendary.

I can't stress enough how much I dislike the implementation. It doesn’t fit the game thematically, feels arbitrary, and grindy. Not to mention, rolling for these is a pain due to some backend server issues, as you can only roll for a few at a time before the game forces you to stop as “you’re doing things too fast”.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2729767387

Jason is a lot simpler, but more limited if you come across a well-organized group of counselors. Basically, you have to kill everyone.

There are multiple Jasons to choose from, each based on a different movie from the franchise. These alter some stats, like weapon damage or cooldowns of certain abilities. Other than that, each Jason plays pretty much the same. He has four fixed abilities that all make him traverse the map faster or track down counselors easier. He has a melee weapon to hack ‘em down with, throwing knives and traps to place at key locations – tools that come in limited amounts.

Another ability Jason has is the grab, which lets him perform one of four pre-selected cinematic kills, unlocked with CP. Unless a counselor has an item to break out of the grab with, it’s pretty much over for ‘em. This is the only unfair part of Jason’s kit in my opinion, in an otherwise well-balanced game. Sure, he might feel overpowered when you’re just starting out, but he has to be strong enough to stand a chance against that potential well-coordinated team of counselors. Once you run into one of those, you’ll realize how every tool at your disposal is necessary to deal with them.

As for the single-player mode, you have two options. One is playing the same matches as online, just with bots in the role of the counselors. The other is is a Hitman-esque challenge mode, where Jason has to traverse the camp unnoticed and take out the counselors one by one. They get some fleshing out, as the mode has a neat little story to go along with it. The counselors are actual characters and their gameplay stats reflect their personalities a bit. They’re pretty well voice-acted, too. The game sounds and looks solid in general. The atmosphere is great, which is surprising for a game based on a franchise not known for atmospheric horror or subtlety.



The game’s a bit hard on the GPU. To get in running smoothly at 1080p, I had to turn down pretty much every setting to Low. Increasing any, other than textures, meant a necessary decrease in resolution as well to maintain performance.


Friday the 13th: The Game is a bit corkscrewed. Even if a good chunk of my hours was spent looking for or setting up lobbies, I got it for exactly 3,12€. It’s a deal I’d take again if given the chance. Hell, I’d go back in time and buy the game earlier, if only I could. Maybe you should as well before it’s too late. It is a most recommendable game, in a rather unrecommendable state.

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.

I admit it! I’m a shill! But not an ordinary one.

As a shill with over a thousand hours on the game, I believe I can accurately present why Vermintide is worth your time, as well as what its most debilitating shortcomings are – and why you should stomach through them. Let’s begin!


I don’t think Vermintide needs much of an introduction at this point. It’s managed to build up a reputation over the years and step, or rather leap, out of the shadow of its inspirations.

Set in the Warhammer universe, Vermintide has you and up to three other friends fighting not against one, but two enemy factions. Gone are the days of merely fighting hordes of zombies, aliens, zombies, or aliens. Both the Skaven (the rat guys) and the Northlanders (Viking-looking green dudes) are completely fledged-out factions, with their own rosters of common enemies, elites, specials, and bosses. Each of these tiers is then further split into several unit types, with differing stats, equipment, and attack patterns. This is only one of the ways in which Vermintide shows off its high skill ceiling. Being able to successfully memorize how to fight each of these enemy types and adapt to it once you’re in the middle of a horde isn’t easy to pull off, but it’s incredibly satisfying once you get into the swing of things.

Of course, an enemy roster alone doesn’t make such a game great. Vermintide’s combat system is similarly layered. You have five characters to choose from, each playing differently from the others. These differences are most apparent when looking at their talent trees, active abilities, and available weapons. However, each character in the base game can swap between three unique classes (called careers in-game), effectively increasing the number of characters to 15. Some of these will be similar in some ways, but figuring out their strengths and weaknesses, the best way to utilize their abilities, and which weapon suits them most, calls for a lot of experimentation and makes each one feel unique from the others.

The gist of the combat is quite straightforward. You press your left mouse button to perform light attacks and hold it for heavier ones, which take longer to execute but deal more damage, as expected. The right mouse button is used for blocking, which alongside dodging is what you use to avoid damage. As for ranged weapons, right-click either swaps to ADS or performs a bash, depending on the weapon you’re using – with some exceptions. You press F to use your career skill, a powerful active ability that’s usually some variation of an empowered attack, a supportive AoE effect, or a dash that buffs you. You won’t be finding any weapons on your missions, aside from some consumable items, as you start them off with a pre-selected loadout. The whole system might seem too simple at first, but the more you increase the difficulty and are forced to get better at the game, the more you start realizing what makes it so great: each weapon has unique attack patterns that can be altered depending on when you decide to do which type of attack, when to block, and when to shove. Essentially, each weapon has unique combos, with each attack having its own damage, armour penetration, and cleave values, as well as coming from a certain direction. It goes beyond just using light attacks for unarmoured and heavy attacks for armoured foes. The visuals, sound effects, and the way enemies get staggered by your strikes, all make it immensely satisfying. On the contrary, ranged weapons can feel underwhelming to use.

Sound is another thing Vermintide has figured out completely. All special enemies have distinct, clearly audible sound cues (the occasional sound bug notwithstanding), while the heroes have callouts for everything. You won’t be feeling lost during a level or unsure of what’s happening. And boy, such wonderful voice acting it is. The characters are quite well written as well, though they may seem a bit one-note if you’re not that willing to dig up their lore or try to get familiarized with the rules of the universe - or read through the weekly lore blogs the developers put up. The enemies are voiced as well, giving them much more character than they’d have if they were limited to just gurgling sounds and screeches.

The soundtrack, done by industry veteran Jesper Kyd, is a perfect fit. It’s this mix of orchestral, chant-heavy songs you’d expect from a fantasy game, complemented with electronic and industrial riffs that give Vermintide’s soundscape its own identity. Action setpieces and horde fights feel exciting and frantic, while for those moments where you're just exploring or passing through a territory ravaged by war, Jesper provides enchanting tracks that have a strong, brooding undertone, further highlighting the desperation of the setting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw1FZWbDG-Y&list=PL_8OPzy1Q4QDJLcbCqCPJeTBlR0kR9wtu&index=7&ab_channel=Fatshark



So, in what aspect does Vermintide 2 fail? Well, the onboarding experience for newer players is kind of terrible. The game starts you off on a difficulty that’s way too easy, unless this is literally the first game you’re playing, like, ever. Harder difficulties need to be unlocked, which can feel a bit arbitrary. It also does a bad job of explaining all of its nuanced mechanics, resorting instead to vague terminology that might confuse you even more.

Visually, I find the game to be great, but there’s a noticeable lack of polish once you start looking at some of the environments, as they look a bit flimsy and unconvincing, almost as if you're walking through a movie set.

The progression of acquiring new items can feel stingy. Although there’ll never be a situation where you don’t have a good weapon to use, having acquiring new weapons be entirely RNG-based can get frustrating, as they're obtained from loot boxes awarded every time you beat a mission, level up, or complete certain challenges. There is a crafting system in place that lets you mitigate this, but you'll find it quite inconvenient. Just look up a guide for all this stuff, honestly.

Finally, there is the occasional bug. These vary from mild annoyances to potentially game-ruining but don’t happen frequently enough where the game is unplayable. If the mere thought of there being a chance that you might lose one of 100 runs due to someone falling through the floor is enough to make you flip out, well then I guess you won’t be adding Vermintide to your shopping cart any time soon.



Vermintide is a notoriously poorly-optimized game that’s quite CPU reliant, so expect hiccups. Furthermore, the 8 GBs of RAM that is recommended on the store page is straight-up inaccurate. Don’t hope for no drops in framerate unless you have at least 16, regardless of your setup.

I’ve managed to get it running at a somewhat stable 60 FPS while still retaining a good chunk of its visual quality at 1080p, with most of the lighting and post-processing settings turned down to their lowest. Getting there wasn’t easy and required a lot of troubleshooting.


I genuinely hope you’ll try out Vermintide 2. While I understand that the things it gets wrong might be a dealbreaker for some, the things it gets right, it gets better than any other game in its genre. The former can only get improved, while the latter… well, if the developers haven’t messed it up so far, then they probably won’t in the future. I've faith in Fatshark.

C’mon, give the game a shot. Will ya?

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.

I’m a seasoned player of co-op horde-killers, so The Anacrusis is definitely my kind of game. But is it good enough to warrant your attention? Well, while it is true that your time is probably better spent playing any of the other already established similar titles, I wouldn’t write it off just yet.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2724944481

So, what is The Anacrusis, and what is it about? The first part of that question is easy to answer: a co-op first-person shooter, set in a retro-futuristic setting that is aggressively 60’s (though a lot more sleek-looking than its apparent inspirations), which pits up to four players against hordes of glowy-headed aliens. The latter is up for interpretation, aside from the premise of our four heroes jumping ship from the Anacrusis over the Isolde, another spaceship, to help with its various alien-related problems. At least, that’s what I think is happening, as there’s currently no straightforward explanation in-game. There are a couple of elusive voice clips that shed some light on the situation, playing before each mission (or episode, as they’re called in-game) begins, but these aren’t of much help as they’re, apparently, bugged at the moment. Granted, games such as this one rarely put all of their cards on the table immediately, as far storytelling is concerned, so as to benefit from multiple playthroughs, but this is pushing it. A description in the main menu of what each episode is about would be much appreciated.

The feeling of being kind of lost isn’t exclusive to the game’s storyline. While the numerous areas around the ship are colorful and creatively designed, there is a clear lack of attention to detail and objective markers, as well as an overabundance of hallways and open, empty areas. The ship feels neither cozy nor lived in. While this all might be intentional to highlight the presumably corporate-ruled universe of The Anacrusis, it makes these levels feel soullessly boring more than anything. You know those dead-end areas you’d come across while exploring a level in any similar game? Like an empty room you could get into or a truck you could climb behind on some road? They’d be surprisingly empty and you’d think to yourself “Huh, am I supposed to find something here?”; know what I mean? Levels in The Anacrusis feel as if they were mostly made from such areas, even when you’re going where you’re supposed to.

That isn’t to say that the game’s setting can’t be fun. It shows potential on a few occasions, one happening early on in the first episode when the group makes a stand in a disco of sorts. The lights come on, pink smoke starts filling up the room, the music kicks in, and aliens start descending down the walls. Nothing like it happens ever again during the rest of the episode nor the two that follow, and the groovy soundtrack rarely makes a return. The ambient tracks have that twinkling feeling to them, really epitomizing the vastness of space, but the horde music is as generic as it gets.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2724949811

Take the best of The Anacrusis’s setting, combine it with its gameplay and you’ll get the main draw of the game. There’s some jank to get around first, mainly the incessant lag. Though this may vary based on your region, it was not pleasant for a lowly Eastern European like me. Another issue is the lack of feedback. You get a hit marker when enemies die, but other than that they barely show signs of being hurt. There are little splatters of orange blood that they produce when being hit, but given how brightly colored their clothes and the environments around them are, they’re not the most obvious indicator. I believe this is why a lot of people find the game’s weapons unsatisfying to use, a sentiment that I do not share. The damage indicators that appear on your screen once you get hit are similarly difficult to notice, to the point of me wondering if there even were any until I specifically started looking out for them.

Running and gunning aren't the only things the gameplay has going for itself. To further incentivize replayability, there are these Matter Compilers placed around maps that offer a choice between three perks once interacted with. These perks can include something as simple as a health increase or a recoil reduction, but also offer more interesting choices, such as making the goo grenade (ordinarily used to slow down enemies) apply a damage reduction buff as well, effectively doubling its use.

Mixed in with the hordes of common enemies are several specials. Among them are the Grabber, the classic special that grabs you from afar; and the Brute, a larger enemy that soaks up a lot of punishment and takes you down in a couple of hits; but also more unique ones such as the Flasher, an enemy which fills your screen with blinding light until it is killed. I don’t think many will like such a design, but I love it. It is unlike any special I’ve faced in similar games before and I welcome the innovation it brings with open arms. The only issues I have are a lack of telegraphed attacks, some of which can be quite debilitating, and the sponginess of each special. The Gooer, which can potentially stun an entire team, shouldn’t be as tanky as it is.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2724956626

If this sounds like a lot of fun, that’s because it is, but the lag does bring it down for me. It messes with pretty much everything, from enemy pathing to aiming down your sights or trying to time your shield properly - your only way of avoiding damage, as there is no dodging or shoving. In fact, it wasn’t the only technical issue I’ve come across.

While I certainly appreciate the fact that the game has cross-platform play from the very start, the lack of an offline option is unforgivable. You’re also not allowed to host a party from the get-go, so you’re guaranteed to spend a couple of minutes in a queue, even if the game isn’t able to find anyone to play with. The bots that replace the players aren’t even that bad, and will surprisingly take lead in some cases, showing you which way to go instead of just following you around, which is a blessing when the levels’ lack of direction is at its worst. However, one did heal me once when I was only missing 10% of my health.

Other bugs include a placed turret appearing at the other end of a room on one occasion, various animation glitches, being thrown into matches even after closing matchmaking, and seemingly random crashes that would occur at the end of a level. Thankfully, even if your game closes, The Anacrusis allows you to reconnect to the match you've disconnected from, provided it’s still in progress.



I can’t comment much on the performance, as the game cleverly doesn’t disclose any specific system requirements on its Steam store page. In my humble opinion, my system should be able to handle it at 60 FPS on more than its lowest settings. This isn’t currently the case.


It’s rough around the edges, lacks content, and lags without exception if you're in certain regions, but The Anacrusis managed to keep me engaged throughout beating its current three episodes. There’s no progression as of yet, with promises of unlockable skins and emotes in the future. Provided you’re somehow exempt from the lag, it’s not too hard to recommend - even more so on sale and once it gets more fleshed out. Here’s to hoping we get to see it ‘cause, at its core, it really gets the co-op horde-killing experience.

This review is an abridged version, brought to you by Save or Quit. Check us out for the full version as well as more, detailed reviews, posted daily![saveorquit.com]

Before I can get into the nitty-gritty and answer the question of "Should I play Warframe?" let it be known that it's impossible to review the entirety of this game with the restriction imposed by Steam's review format. There are too many systems within it to cover them all. We can talk about what works and what doesn’t as a whole, but to truly dissect them we’d need one of those 6-hour-long YouTube videos that are all the rage these days.

The short answer: Yes, you should play it. It’s free, a lot of fun and doesn’t make you feel terrible if you never spend money on it. The long answer; here we go!


Warframe is an MMO, co-op, third-person shooter, taking place in our very own solar system, at an unimaginably distant point in time, where two major factions vie for control in the aftermath of a great war. Players take on the role of the Tenno – ancient warriors now needed more than ever to keep balance within the universe and protect innocents from the new war they find themselves in. The Tenno operate the titular Warframes, battlesuits with exceptional combat prowess, agility, and space magic.

After choosing your Warframe, you’re dropped into a tutorial where you learn the basics of Warframe’s excellent combat and movement systems. You get a primary, secondary, and melee weapon, and can switch between them on the fly. Each Warframe also has four unique abilities, ie. space magic. Although the game doesn’t have a combo meter, it is very evocative of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and similar hack-n-slash games. The movement is cathartic, as you can glide through the air, run on walls, slide, twirl, and generally parkour all over the place. It’s a lot of fun.

After the tutorial, you get your very own spaceship, from which you’ll be able to fly across the galaxy and participate in the abundant content Warframe offers. You can visit all of the planets in the Solar system, and then some. While some of them have open-world areas, the majority of Warframe’s game modes you’ll get to play will be standalone missions, such as Survival, Defense, Assassination, Excavation, etc. As you do so, you will be awarded crafting resources and blueprints on which to use them, usually for crafting new weapons and Warframes. You’ll also be awarded Mods, which you can equip on your equipment to modify its various stats.

You’ll also notice just how beautiful of a game Warframe is, with visuals that make me wonder just how in the world they keep the system requirements as low as they are. There are issues with how lighting works, as certain surfaces can be blindingly bright, but turn off Bloom and you should be good. The audio production is similarly brilliant, with excellent sound design that makes the combat punchy and satisfying, regardless of which weapon you’re using. It’s amazing how every single weapon, no matter if it’s a primary, secondary, or melee, can be auditorily distinct from another, and still sound amazing. The soundtrack has a fitting track for every situation, ranging from ethereal chants when the game is being mysterious, to faster-paced, drum-driven ones that compliment the combat. There’s a bit of inconsistency to it, as some are memorable enough to become known even outside of the game, while others are just something you probably won't think about outside of the moment it's playing.


So, after you’ve gotten acquainted with your ship and everything you can do around it, maybe progressed through a couple of planets, and tried doing a quest or two, the game opens up and provides very little information on what you’re supposed to do next. Don’t bother with figuring it out on your own, as that’ll only put you off. Look to the wiki and save yourself unnecessary frustration. After the first…40 hours, the game will click. You’ll find a weapon that works for you and continue progressing through the Star map, acquiring more gear and knowledge on the game as you go along, and getting to complete more and more story quests.

If you’re smart, unlike I was, you should probably stop around 400-500 hours, as Warframe’s problems become more apparent as progression continues. I believe that, first and foremost, Warframe was designed to keep player base retention. You may think that every game is, but no. As a free-to-play title, Warframe most likely relies on players to keep coming back; as they invest more and more time into it, the more likely they are to invest money as well. Other, paid titles, won’t mind how many hours you put in since you pay up-front. Warframe isn’t bad in this regard, as pretty much anything that can be bought with Platinum (the game's premium currency) can be grinded for, as you can trade Platinum with other players, so there’s a strong trading economy at play here - but you wouldn't know it from the in-game market.

The very progression is stop-and-go, as each piece of gear has its own level. As you level them up, so does your overall account level, called Mastery, increase – granting you access to more content and weapons. You’re encouraged to keep swapping between them, instead of getting more powerful with one – which you will have to do as well, at some point. Once this stops at Mastery level 16, you’ve pretty much encountered the hardest Warframe has to throw at you, and you still have another 24 levels to go, with new ones being added as the number of equipment in the game grows. Past that point, all you’re doing is increasing numbers and figuring out the most efficient way of farming for new stuff. You might not mind it as much, but know that the game wasn’t designed with a point of finality in mind, but for you to keep coming back, again and again, to keep grinding and completing content, without much substance to it. Enemies become trivial, as a single press of a button can wipe out entire rooms. Level-design becomes non-existent, as you spam the bullet jump maneuver to blaze through levels as fast as possible, so you can try again if that piece of loot you need didn’t drop.

As such, the developers prioritize new, replayable content to get older players into the grind again. At the same time, it has to be accessible to newer players, so it can’t be made too difficult. Story quests suffer especially, as they’re not designed with replayability in mind. The main plot of Warframe still isn’t finished, and it’s been three years since the previous major quest had been added. There’s a lot of wasted potential here, especially with some of the characters, as such a game can’t really have character development. There's simply no room for it as things need to stay static—characters are bereft of their arcs and remain the same for the sake of replayable missions and grind.

It might keep all those boxes in your mind ticked so you feel accomplished. I know I did way past a point I should have, but looking back at a good part of those 995 hours, and it feels like time wasted.


Reviewed on the following system:


It is a game I loved playing, and sometimes still get some enjoyment out of, but no matter what the countless blinking lights on the star map and the XP bars that beg to be filled would have you believe, there is a point where it has nothing more to offer.

Check out Summit Reviews, a curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, for more professional-quality reviews of all sorts of games!

Disclaimer: This review concerns the main campaign of the definitive edition of the game. Links to the reviews of the rest of the definitive edition content can be found at the bottom.

Although Arkane Studios have already produced two cult classics with Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah, it’s not until Dishonored had they made a notable impact in the mainstream. The team’s signature approach to game design ensures Dishonored is still worth a playthrough today, even if it doesn’t remain their best work.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668721434

The game takes place in Dunwall, a city ridden with plague, poverty and political turmoil. Upon returning from an important assignment, Corvo Attano, the Empress’s bodyguard is framed with treason by the Royal Spymaster and his allies, and taken to prison—where he is sentenced to death. Managing to escape, he sets out for revenge. On who and why, will be up to you.

Dishonored’s gameplay follows a mission-by-mission structure, with each being set in a group of connected areas between which you can freely travel as you complete your objectives. There are two main ways you can go about traversal, either treating levels as paths of enemies to clear out, or stealth courses. Even if Corvo’s movement is a bit clunky and takes some time to get used to, moving around the levels is a lot of fun. In combat, you can choose from a wide arsenal of equipment and magic abilities, while stealth offers similarly creative ways to avoid detection.

Exploration plays a big part, as not only can you find useful items and resources, but uncover more details about the world you’re in and the characters that inhabit it. You can also figure out alternate ways of completing your objectives; instead of killing a corrupt noble, maybe you can think up a way to serve him a taste of his own medicine. None of this is forced upon you, and surprisingly, the game can go to great lengths in tracking these decisions thanks to its Chaos system, which represents the reputation Corvo builds for himself. Be a rampaging murderer, and your targets in future missions might take more precautions to stop you. Your allies might start treating you differently. The plot might take a different turn. Even mixing up these two approaches goes beyond just giving you a “mixed” reputation.

Between missions, you’ll be allowed to roam around a hub area, talk to your allies, and purchase upgrades and equipment. You do so in exchange for coins you’ve found, while upgrading your magical abilities is done through finding Runes and Bone Charms.

Bone Charms are items that you can equip for various buffs, while Runes are akin to XP, as each ability upgrade costs a certain number of them. While there aren’t many to upgrade, each ability has many uses, to the point where there won’t be a situation you won’t be able to get out of, should you upgrade them sufficiently. There isn’t any good reason for you not to, as each Rune you can find has a quest marker leading to it, and no upgrade will wall you off from another. It's pretty much the only, and biggest, flaw of the combat system, as there isn’t a noticeable difficulty curve. My very first playthrough was on the hardest difficulty, and even then I rarely died. Stealth is similarly easy, as you have abilities such as stopping time, teleportation, seeing through walls, and possessing enemies, all the while the AI suffers from an obliviousness that is typical for stealth-focused games.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668721619

Going back to the story; it’s weak, especially when compared to Arkane’s later work. Interesting, but not engaging enough. Lacking both a strong main character and villain.

Corvo is a silent protagonist so he ties into the decision-making aspect of the gameplay system, but he’s characterized just enough that being silent during conversations feels awkward. Characters are talking at you, not with you, and aside from how you play and some scripted interactions, the entirety of his character is for you to make up on your own. It’s just silly how all of these dramatic, heart-wrenching things are happening around him, and most of the time Corvo just stands there, silent. Even the way he gets his magical powers happens sort of randomly, through a dream sequence that comes out of nowhere.

There are some major pacing issues, as well. What kicks off the plot happens way before you can become invested, while the ending feels abrupt. The antagonist almost disappears from the story up until the mission you face him in, while the other important enemy characters are introduced in the same mission you’re tasked with getting rid of them.

The atmosphere and the worldbuilding are both well done. It’s the only aspect of the story the game nails. You get a good sense of how Dunwall’s glory days have long passed and of the uphill battle its citizens are now facing. It makes all the decisions you can make, both important and trivial, and the themes the game explores, weigh on you all the more. The city has this pronounced note of believability to it that drives home the feeling of it being built independently from you. There’s plenty of lore to discover on the side, but it’s almost pointless without an engaging story.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668722038

Graphically, Dishonored’s age shows. With a water-coloured painting aesthetic and memorable world and character design, the game has great art direction but looks too drab, smudgy and washed out because of its dated textures. It gets better later on, but the first six hours have been a real strain on my eyes. The lighting is phenomenal, and Arkane’s animation work has only further improved from their previous game, Dark Messiah, in which it was quite advanced for the time.

Aside from the sound effects that happen during fights and the voice acting, Dishonored’s audio is quite unremarkable, as the atmosphere is quite independent of it. The soundtrack is rather wistful, further complementing the feeling of a longing for a bygone era, but with the exception of some string sections, I’d be hard-pressed to remember any specific tracks.

Reviewed on the following system:


With it being as old as it is, my system was able to handle Dishonored all the way through with no dips in performance. Max settings, 1080p, 60 FPS. The full package. There also weren’t any compatibility issues, bugs, or anything of the sort – though it is funny how the game can only show up to 5 bodies at a time. Knock out or kill more enemies in the same area, and you’ll find them oddly disappearing.

If you’ve played Prey, then you’ve already played a better Arkane game than Dishonored. Even the DLC surpasses the main campaign, in my opinion, and I’d be surprised if Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider aren’t similarly better. It’s not bad by any means – way better than Dark Messiah - and I’m thankful for it bringing one of the most creative studios out there into the spotlight they deserve.

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.

My reviews of other Dishonored: Definitive Edition content:

Void Walker's Arsenal

Dunwall City Trials

The Knife of Dunwall

The Brigmore Witches

Offering no playable content, Void Walker's Arsenal instead serves as a bundle of the various pre-order bonuses once available for Dishonored, depending on which retailer the game had been preordered from.

What these contain are some in-game Journal entries, unlockable after beating the first mission, as well as additional Bone Charms - items which you can equip for slight buffs - as well as increasing the max amount of them you can equip.

While the Journal entries are interesting, they can falsely make out certain characters to be more important than they actually are within the game's story. The additional Bone Charms however, directly mess with the game's progression. In a game that's already widely regarded as too easy, I'd say that can be pretty detrimental.

Definitely to be disabled on your first playthrough, while the value it might add for subsequent ones is debatable. Maybe it shouldn't be recommended just on the fact that it serves as a reminder of the terrible practice that are retailer-exclusive preorder bonuses.

For my review of the base game, click here.

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.

The Brigmore Witches is the third and final piece of downloadable content released for Dishonored, and concludes the story of Daud – the master assassin wrestling with guilt for his participation in the events that kicked off the storyline of the main game.

Everything I’ve said about Daud’s story in my The Knife of Dunwall review applies here. The gist of it is that it’s a much better written and more engaging tale than Corvo’s, and with it being delivered in a more concise package that reflects on the choices you’ve made in the previous DLC, it feels much more impactful.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668754858

Design-wise, the look and feel of The Brigmore Witches’ levels continues the excellence of The Knife of Dunwall, further surpassing the main game, while Daud’s connection to the criminal underworld further drives home the disastrous state the city is in.

Gameplay-wise, there aren’t any changes here, aside from a new ability which lets you pull and interact with items from a distance, or pull people towards you force-choke style. Still, with only a couple of hours left before the game's conclusion, I never found time to properly experiment with it or find a circumstance where it felt truly needed.

The Brigmore Witches also marks the first and only time Dishonored has felt difficult, as unlike the previous DLC, this one lets you select the hardest difficulty right off the bat – and it seems to be even harder than the hardest difficulty of the main game, as a one-hit kill from a guard quite surprised me once it happened.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668755027

Overall, it is a strong finale to the themes and story of the first game in the series. It doesn’t feel lackluster at all after the climax of the main game. In fact, given the context and the decisions Daud can make, I’d say the stakes are even higher.

Looking forward to playing and reviewing Dishonored 2. What else can I say?

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.

For my review of the base game, click here.

For my review of the first part of Daud’s story, click here.

The Knife of Dunwall is the second DLC released for Dishonored, telling the story of Daud – the master assassin whose actions kicked off the plot of the main game.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668752617

I always appreciate when expansions and downloadable content go for elaborating on the main game’s story, rather than straight up continuing it, and The Knife of Dunwall is probably one of the best instances of it I’ve experienced. Everything I’ve felt lacking in the main game, the DLC made up for.

For starters, Daud is a much more interesting character than Corvo. He’s not only voiced, but voiced by Michael Madsen, who delivers a great performance. His motivations are actually clear, while still retaining more than enough space for the way you play to shape him as a character. In every way, it’s the same thing the main game was striving towards, but improved upon. Daud also has a clear antagonist - who is set up better than any of the enemies in the main game - as well as a likeable sidekick.

Design-wise, the levels are much more concise and varied than the ones in Dishonored, while looking much better as well, with no expense at the dread-filled atmosphere of the game. Instead of a hub area in-between levels, here you are presented with a menu from which Daud can reach out to his contacts who provide him with equipment and upgrades. It's pretty much the same upgrade menu from the base game, with the addition of Favors that Daud can pay for, making the upcoming mission a bit more convenient. These can range from someone merely leaving an entrance open for you, a Rune, or straight up providing you with a disguise to infiltrate enemy-controlled areas with.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668753193

Unfortunately, while Daud starts off notably weaker than Corvo will be by the time you finish the main game, it doesn’t feel as if the difficulty has increased by any means. In a surprising move, you can’t even select the hardest difficulty before unlocking it, despite being able to do so in the main game. Daud also doesn’t play that much different from Corvo, despite there being some alterations to which gear and magic abilities he can use. Still, the change in perspective, animations, and how these characters use some of the same equipment they handle are refreshing enough, at least for a while.

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.

For my review of the continuation of Daud’s story, click here.

For my review of the base game, click here.

Dunwall City Trails is the first piece of downloadable content released for Dishonored. It features ten challenge levels, void of any story, structured to highlight separate portions of the game’s gameplay.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668734325

Each of these levels uses a three-star-based grading system, with higher ratings unlocking more concept art in the Gallery section of the main menu for your viewing pleasure. Certain challenges also come in harder, Expert variants, unlocked when achieving at least two stars on the regular difficulty of the corresponding challenge.

Suffice it to say, if there was a specific part of Dishonored’s gameplay you wish to get more of, then there’s something you’ll like within this DLC. For example, one challenge will task you with avoiding detection while recovering clues about the identity of your assassination target, while another will pit you against waves of increasingly challenging enemies and task you with eliminating them in the most creative ways you can imagine. Another challenge will task you with beating an obstacle course as fast as possible, while relying on your parkour skills and the Blink ability. There’s a challenge that has you kill a certain number of targets within a time limit, all the while the Bend Time ability is active. Once it ends, you get to witness the carnage you caused take place all at once, as time continues to flow.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2668735572

The situation changes slightly if you’re an achievement hunter. While this DLC is necessary for you to 100% the game, it'll be at least somewhat frustrating as the majority of the challenges don’t explain what they’re basing your score on sufficiently enough. If you went into this without any knowledge, you’ve certainly found yourself doing everything the game told you to do, only for you to come out with a measly one star rating on the other end. Some of these omissions can feel downright malicious, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you have to resort to Google just to figure out what exactly each challenge tracks.

Some of the locations these challenges are taking place in are visually refreshing after looking at a drab city for 20 hours, but honestly, does it even matter?

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.

For my review of the base game, click here.

In Dungeon of the Endless, a game best described as a tower defense, dungeon crawler roguelike with RPG elements, every bit of the genre-blend is as highlighted as the next, while still finding room to deliver exposition and lore, adding an additional layer of mystery to the experience, without ever feeling overbearing.

As the story goes, Success, a prison barge, is shot down while on route to the planet of Auriga, the epicenter of many events in Amplitude Studios’ Endless universe. A number of crew members manage to escape in drop pods, but upon crash landing find themselves trapped within an underground complex from which they must escape.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2653022239

As Dungeon of the Endless is a roguelike, this is where each of your runs will begin. You select up to four heroes for your party and the drop pod you’ll be dropping in, with each drop pod featuring different modifiers. You’re tasked with beating 12 monster-infested floors in order to escape the dungeon, each floor presenting a level within the run. Die trying, or manage to beat the game, and you get to do it all over again. There’s no reloading from a previous floor or anything like that, although you are allowed to save your game ironman style. Meta progression works by unlocking new drop pods and heroes for subsequent runs, should you fulfil certain requirements while playing.

There are a lot of things you’ll need to keep track of. Navigating each floor is done in a turn-based, dungeon crawler fashion. You open doors, looking for the elevator that will take you to the next floor. Each opened door functions as a turn, providing you with income, separated into four resources; Industry, Science, Food and Dust.

Industry plays into the tower defense aspect of the game, and is used for building modules – with each room having a fixed amount of slots they can be built on. These modules can affect anything from your income, to buffing heroes and assisting you in fighting the incoming onslaught of monsters, there being a chance of one each time you open a door. Monsters can’t just spawn anywhere, which is where the Dust resource comes into play. Dust is the only resource that can’t be obtained from modules, at least not by ordinary means, or carried over between floors, and is what you use to supply power to the rooms. If a room has no power, none of the modules built in it can function. Furthermore, it can serve as a spawn point for the monsters, as long as no hero is present. The more doors you open, the more dangerous the current floor gets. You also aren’t able to power any room, but only those with a direct path to the room you started in, in which the Crystal – the object you’re using to power this whole endeavor – is located. Dust also functions as the Crystal’s health bar, lost when monsters get their chance to whack it. The more health you lose, the less rooms you’ll get to power, making subsequent turns even harder.

There’s a lot of planning and strategy involved – and when you take into account all the things you can discover while exploring the dungeon, be it items or research nodes where you unlock new modules in exchange for Science, it becomes important to have a flexible strategy. It’s very important that you have it at least somewhat nailed down before you open the next door, as at that point the game cares little for turns. Combat unfolds in real time and the build speed of your modules slows down to a crawl. You do have the ability to pause, but this does little to ameliorate the situation later in the game.

Once you find your exit, you must decide whether to keep exploring, knowing the ever-increasing risk, or make a break for it. Should you decide to leave, it’s up to one of your heroes to carry the Crystal through the dungeon to the elevator, at a vastly decreased movement speed and no combat capabilities, all the while endless waves of enemies spawn. The modules you’ve built and other heroes must hold the line, but any hero not present at the exit once the Crystal reaches it and you decide to leave will be lost forever. It’s a thrilling final effort for each floor that puts the strategy you’ve been abiding by to the test one last time.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2653023081

Food is another important resource, spent directly on your heroes as it’s used for healing, leveling up and recruiting new members into your party. Heroes not only have different stats, which affect more than their combat effectiveness, but also active abilities, passives, item slots and backstories. Surprisingly, the backstories aren’t just text blurbs you can read to add a little extra depth to the character, but set up storylines they can have between one another. They also have little quips triggered by different actions, fleshing out their personalities all the more, and tying nicely into their strengths and weaknesses. Complete a storyline by keeping certain heroes alive together for a number of floors, and you’ll unlock unique passives. There’s also a Photo Album accessible from the main menu that gets filled out not only as you complete these storylines, but also regularly progress through the game and fulfil other requirements. On top of including some great art, it also provides additional context for the game.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2653022317

Dungeon of the Endless can not only be enjoyed solo, but with up to 3 friends. Unfortunately, it is where the game’s issues I’ve previously hinted at with the way you control your heroes come to their full fruition, as pausing is disabled in multiplayer. The game does possess a lengthy list of keybinds, as anything you can click on is most likely bound to a hotkey. However, it’ll take some real StarCraft proplay-like mastery to nail it all with everything that’s happening. I’ve lost countless runs to not being able to heal my heroes on time, as a group of late-game enemies can usually ka-chunk them in a couple of hits. To make matters worse, online play completely gets rid of hero quips and storylines, so you shouldn’t bother with it if that aspect of the game is what you’re most interested in.

Reviewed on the following system:


Dungeon of the Endless is a gorgeous game. Not only are there plenty of beautiful particles, but it all runs so smoothly maxed out, thanks to the ridiculously low system requirements. The rooms of the dungeon have a great sense of atmosphere to them and are surprisingly highly detailed and look very lived-in, further letting you speculate and go on tangents on what exactly was happening in this facility before you came along. Each of the heroes is also beautifully animated, with a lot of nuance and little details in the way they do things, which – again – further adds to their personalities. Meanwhile, the soundtrack follows what’s happening on screen rather well, but never truly stands out.

There are some weird bugs to encounter, like having a hero refuse to attack anything ’till the end of the floor, but in the ~90 hours I’ve spent with the game so far, these never ruined a run or were frequent enough for me to make a more extensive note of.

Overall, we’re dealing with a high-quality title. It’s rare to find a game in which every element was given as much thought as the next. Sure, you can spend time looking for spots that could use some tweaking and you'd find a few, but you’d be missing all the other ones the game knocks out of the park. Not to mention, the monsters would have gotten to you by that point already.

A curator helmed by veterans of the review scene, Summit regularly provides you with professional quality reviews for all sorts of games.