Recent reviews by Peylix

Prefacing this as an Early Access review of the first two chapters only. Will make a full review after finishing the full game.

So far, I've enjoyed Double Exposure quite a bit. Issues with PC performance aside (more on that in a second). The story was able to hook me and keep me hooked. I am a little bummed out regarding treatment of a certain character from LIS1. Though I also understand why that decision was made (if it turns out to be the final decision, full game isn't out yet so I'm holding off final judgement on this till then).

A lot of the new characters have a lot to like and or dislike about them. Good mix of both. Cannot wait to see more of these fleshed out.

Chapter 2's ending ironically was a goofy theory I had, so to see that actually come through was pretty funny to me. Though it's setting up to what I hope to be a worthy story all the way through. Whether D9 pulls it off, remains to be seen.

Performance issues though... This is a UE5 title that like most UE5 titles right now, lacks a lot of polish. The game is EXTREMELY demanding that even my 4080 struggled. I had to manually add a DLSS fix because native support for that was missing as well (salt in the wound).

With the fix, it makes the game somewhat playable for me. It bounces between 2560x1440p and 5120x1440p on a whim. So my performance can be as high as 100fps or as low as 60fps depending on how demanding the area is and or what ratio the game decided to run in at any given moment. Frequent crashes too. Very frequent crashes.

Right now, I'm recommending this only for those who have decent hardware or those who are able to manually add the DLSS tweak / OK with playing on much lower settings. Otherwise, I say wait for full release and patches plus native DLSS support.

Updated review:

3 years later, we now have the 2.0 update & Phantom Liberty. To say these were huge changes and for the better would be a disservice & quite an understatement. A lot has changed.

The skills & perks feel more impactful and builds more balanced. While I do miss the broken Netrunner builds like Legendary Ping+Contagion (lol). I've been enjoying the re-balance a lot more. The driving has been VASTLY improved over what was, though it still feels a bit... wonky.

Optimization has gotten better too. Well, maybe most of that has to do with moving from a 3900x/1080ti to 5900x/4080. Being able to utilize DLSS3.5 has been a game changer for me in experiencing this game. Netting an average 98fps with all settings maxed + full Path Tracing w/ the DLSS Quality preset on 3840x1080p. Can lock a solid 60fps on 3840x2160p if I select DLSS Balanced instead.

It's less buggy than before, but not perfect. But I'd expect nothing less given it's been 3 whole years since launch.

I have not finished Phantom yet, and really have only started. But the 7ish hours I have into the DLC already has shown me the writing that I loved is still there. As is the voice acting, atmosphere, art design, and score.

I'll update this new review once I've finished Phantom and enjoyed 2.0's changes more. But so far, this changes the 6.5/10 to a solid 8/10 for me so far.




Original review:

Where to start with this review.... I have mixed feelings. More good than bad. But I'll address it as best I can.

This game launched before it was ready. Period. It was FAR from finished. But finished enough to give a fun experience. While I have 66+ hours logged, half way or just over half way on main quest. I've been farming sides and skill trees. The story, characters, narratives, sound design, atmosphere are all top tier. Easy to get immersed & lost in, and have tons of fun.

But

There are way too many bugs. Bethesda level bugs that are downright silly and stupid at times. Visually & audibly. I've had many that needed me to revert saves like falling FOV, audio clipping and vanishing, V getting vaulted 100's of feet in a random direction after stepping on a bottle, locking & glitching convo narrative choices, quest lines bugging, V's health getting stuck at permanent 0 and glitching god mode, the list goes on. I've encountered way too many bugs to list and most of the time I have to remind myself that this isn't a Bethesda game. Because it plays like one.

The optimization is well. Non existent. I have an R9 3900x & 1080ti. I play on a 3840x1080p 144hz monitor. My usual experience with demanding titles such as RDR2 & SOTTR have been around 100fps avg on High/Ultra

2077, I get 40fps. 50 if I OC my 1080ti to 2090MHz and drop preset to Medium. Big oof. I can get 90 playing on standard 16:9 1080p though. But unless you have a 3080. Good luck playing anything above 1080p on High settings hoping to net more than 60fps.

There's a lot to be desired in this game too. The driving is way too clunky, gun play is too until you get near maxed skill trees for certain weapons. I wish there was car customization and further char customization past the initial creation. There should be more stealth take down options per weapon type and the list goes on.

Hell, we're only a week now since release and I know a lot of this will get fixed or added. Well, that's my hope at least.

But I've still been able to enjoy the game. But that's because I pre ordered it. The first game I've pre ordered in many years and has become a shining example as to WHY you should not do such.

Do I recommend buying the game now if you don't have it already? No. Not unless you have a very beefy system or are just playing 1080p. And are OK with dealing with a massive amount of bugs. Some folks threshold for that stuff is higher than others. Mine is higher usually because I grew up playing Bethesda titles. SO I'm use to bugs and glitches. But I know being ok with stuff like that feeds into the problem.

I suggest waiting for the game to be patched a good amount and optimized a good deal. CDPR has a long road ahead of them.

It's not a game to end all games or some new re-invention of a genre. But it is a game really worth playing to experience. The story alone on it's own merit can hold that up. The question is. When should you buy it to experience it yourself?

That's something you will have to answer yourself.

As of today, in the game's current state. I'd rate this a 6.5/10.

Where do I start with SOTTR.

As a whole round out to end the reboot trilogy. I'd give it a seal of approval. As a standalone title against the other 2? Shadow falls short.

Story for Shadow felt.. shallow. I didn't feel much connection to any of the characters other than Laura, and even she was "disimbodied" for most of the game. I was hoping the story arc itself was gonna be amazing. But it too was empty and felt lackluster. I still enjoyed it, and kept me playing. But didn't intrigue me as previous titles. It's also short. Not terribly short, but short.

Graphics are hit or miss. Granted, I played this in it's first week before any major patches outside day 1 patch. Colors were washed out for me, and I had a slew of graphical errors (which have since been patched upon reading patch notes). The map can be downright gorgeous when setting are maxed. But fidelity took a hit, and noticible downgrades on character models over the previous title Rise. Shadow is still a gorgeous game none the less though.

Gameplay was improved in places, but fell off a cliff in others. I can pretty much be sure to point to Eidos M being the culprit for this. The worthless progression system and skills. Worthless because over 90% are hardly ever used if at all. Even on higher difficulties. Forced outfit zones (one of which being a spot where you spend a good 45-60% of the game outside of main missions. Which is a shame because we have so many cool outfits to choose from. Some as "bonus" dlc or rewards. Yet you hardly ever get to use or see them. Also, no manual flashlight toggle. (Extra sucky in numerous spots)

Improved gameplay for me would be stealth. Even though combat took a massive nerf, the stealth mechanics were drastically improved. Just wish we had more encounters. Collectibles for me was fun. (Still working on the 100%). The added underwater portions were nice and gave an extra bit of challenge.

The Tombs took a nice step forward. What I was really hoping for and they at least delivered on that. I had a blast on all the Challenge Tombs in Shadow. (Not counting any of the 7 DLC Tombs. I'm waiting for all 7 to be out before I tackle them). They made some nice challenges that were quite fun to explore and solve. Specially the Trials. Trial of the Eagle which is probably one of the more recognizable ones was super fun (and frustrating) with it's challenging verticality and timing.

All in all.

Shadow is worth a play. It's not worth a full $60 price but it's already been dropped down to $30 perm. On sale now from there to I think $17 for standard ver for the Winter Sale at the time of this review. It's optimization is getting better. Before all the major patches, I was locking 60fps on Ultra in most places outside of Hidden City. With a few small dips here or there. The story is kind of a bore, and there is almost no combat outside several forced set pieces. But it's a pretty game with challenging puzzles and the ability to make it even harder.

I hope Crystal Dynamics continues the franchise and hope they learned to NOT source out to another dev like Eidos Montreal. Nothing against Eidos M. They have done great things in the past. But they dropped the ball on SOTTR. A lot.

I give Shadow 6/10.

Worth the buy if it's less than $30

ROTTR was a great addition to the new trilogy. With some caveats however, which I'll go over after what I liked about the title.

Rise was beautiful in many ways. From certain set pieces, to the overall graphics if you can push High/Ultra on DX12. My first play through was right after the game came out. No DX12 yet and I had an older system (Phenom II X6 1045t, GTX 970, 4GB ram). It was pretty taxing on those specs and I wasn't really able to fully enjoy the graphics at the time. My 2nd play through however, with an FX-8370 and GTX 1080ti and 32GB ram. Allowed me to REALLY enjoy just how gorgeous the game is. I'm still playing my 2nd in preparation for Shadow.

The story was enticing for me, but Rise borrowed not one, not two, but three to four key plot devices/arcs from the 2013 title. I played both titles back to back and it was kind of a letdown to see the writers cut corners like that. I wish they changed things up a bit and didn't borrow so much from the first title. All things considered, I still enjoyed the story overall.

I liked the characters that were introduced and how their relationships evolved / devolved with Laura as the game progressed. I wish a few had more backstory to them, but I didn't feel like they totally blanked on them. The audio log collection and documents did help a lot in this regard though. Laura's progression and “growing up” so to speak was well done. Though could have been done better imo. Mainly due in part to the story. Which while I enjoyed. Felt like some corners were cut like mentioned above.

The improved game mechanics were a nice touch. Expanding on Laura's perk system and giving more focus to the survival aspects in game. I liked it over 2013's iteration. It fit Rise's semi-open world/hub world well and I felt like it was the right direction. The perks were fun to use and if you spent some extra time, could unlock most of them if not all on 1 play through.

The boss fights were a welcome challenge. I got hung up on one of the later ones for a bit but eventually found my way through. Which was quite rewarding, despite how annoying it was haha.

I do however, wish there were more tombs and challenges. Rise was rather short on that front sadly. Not as many tombs as most hoped for, but they crammed in a ton of “search challenges” where you usually had to find x number of items and either destroy or shoot them. It was nice at first, but got repetitive and boring after the 3rd one. I hope this changes for Shadow. Either make them more challenging, or change up the formula a tad. It has been confirmed that Shadow will have a lot more tombs and challenge areas though.

Overall, Rise was great. Not amazing, but great. An improvement over the 2013 TR, but left a little to be desired here and there. It's worth the buy and play, specially now with DX12 support and if your hardware can handle it. Turn those settings up and enjoy. I had a blast playing Rise the first time, and am loving it on my current revisit.

I have high hopes for Shadow. From what I've seen so far. We're only a month away at the time of me writing this. I'm excited to play the conclusion to this origin trilogy.

What to say, what to say...

I enjoyed episode One. The new dev team did a good job keeping this a part of the franchise and what made the original game from Don't Nod so great. It's story and atmosphere.

Yes, new engine, Chole voice actress, same cliche speeking in parts, and some animation quiks. But those don't detract much from the overall experiance. I found it quite easy to look past that as I was engrossed in the story. Deck Nine also proved that the LIS franchise can live without the time travel mechanic as well. While fun in the original game, made choices leave little impact, sans a few here and there. Before The Storm's "gimmick" relies more on thinking on your feet using words in an argument. Though, I have found it to be a little... lack luster. It's pretty hard to screw it up honestly. Kinda wish they added a bit more challenge to it.

Because of this, choices in Before The Storm carry more impact (for me at least) as I don't have the rewind gimmick to view what's behind door B, and choose the best door after so to speak. (You can still do this by just reloading checkpoints, but come on. That's a lame way to play haha)

Overall, the game looks and sounds great. The story has done a great job of hooking it's teeth in like the original and that's why I'm excited for the next episodes. It's also why I recomend this game for those who want more of the LIS franchise. It's worth the price.

It is amazing how a 12 year old game can hold up for this long.

For many including myself. Chaos Theory has been the defining chapter in this franchise. The one that all other chapters are compaired to. For me, Chaos Theory improved upon the concept from the first two titles and made a defining atmosphere in which we the player actually feel like a super spy when we play. Much like Theif and Metal Gear and how those franchises defined the genre, Chaos Theory added new elements that would help define future stealth gameplay.

I think the reason why so many hold this title to be the best Splinter Cell is because it was followed by Double Agent which forked off into a more casual style of stealth. Which continued further up the line with Conviction. Blacklist, while still holding the causal aspect introduced with Double Agent. Did try to re-focus on the core of the franchise and what made it great.

I remeber getting the demo disk in an issue of Xbox Magazine which consisted of the Lighthouse mission. I was so captivated by it that by the time the game actually released. I had played that mission hundreds of times. What really made this game for me though was the introduction of co-op. Something that I had always wanted to do in Splinter Cell.

I enjoyed Chaos Theory so much that it was a staple in LAN parties with my group for several years.

I bought this on Steam a few years ago and never got around to playing it. Having just recently garnered an interest in going back and playing all the old titles, I remembered that I had this in my library. While the game itself is 12 years old, I do like how it looks on PC. It's no Witcher 3, but for a 2005 title. It looks damn good in my opinion.

Controls took some getting used to for me. I was so used to playing this game on a controller that it felt alien for me to play on mouse & keyboard. But I quickly got comfortable after 30 or so minutes. The story is the only thing that I feel to be dated. It's no masterpeice but it gets the job done in getting you hooked. Then again, the story wasn't really Chaos Theory's main driving point either in what made it popular.

So far I have been enjoying it. That rush of nostalgia that I get with every favorable spot and event puts a smile on my face. The gameplay is something that I wish the following titles kept. I hope the next instalment goes back to the franchise's roots and brings back the Splinter Cell we all know and love.

I highly recommend this game for anyone looking to get a feel on what Splinter Cell has been about. What once was a defining title in the stealth genre. It still looks, sounds, plays, and feels like a fun and enjoyable game even after all these years. It also has a good degree of difficulty if you want to achieve 100% Ghost statistics on the missions. So it will offer a nice challenge too if that's what you're looking for.

You are also still able to play the co-op and Spy vs Merc MP by using Hamachi or Tunggle. So that's a plus as well.

I know this game has been getting it's fair share of lashings. Understandable and even I agree with some of the key points people are not approving of.

I just finished a 36 hour playthrough including all side missions and POIs. Though I have yet to play either of the two standalone missions or Breach Mode.

Do I feel that it was ended a little soon with a more "anti-climatic" ending? Yeah actually. That's the largest fault for me with this game. The villians are built up nice and strongly, just to wither out into almost nothing. I feel like the setup to the final stage was rushed and the actual ending was poorly executed. Personally, I think they could have easily fleshed out the main story more and given this game a true ending worthy of what they built. I also wish we had more places to go rather than be confined to a rather small main map area. I know it was packed with content (which is nice, really adds to the reality of drawing the player in), but It felt kind of clausterphobic.

Why am I recommending this game anyways with these flaws?

It's because I still enjoyed it. The ending was really my only major gripe with Mankind Divided. Some other minor issues with game crashes here and there. Which only happened twice throughout my 36 hours (Honestly isn't bad. There are other major titles that crash before you can say "I never asked for this".) I also really enjoyed the side missions and POIs. Some of those were really clever and a lot of fun. Some of the new augs were really fun to play around with. My favorites being Remote Hacking and P.E.P.S. Also liked the reworked Social Enhancer aug as well.

The graphics are nice. I was able to push a mix of High and Very High settings and get a good solid 60fps @ 1080p w/ my GTX 970, 16GB ram, and my dated (soon to be replaced) Phenom II X6 1045t. I was more than pleased with the aesthetical value presented as well as the art direction. Part of the biggest draws for me in this franchise is the amazing art direction. The sound design was enjoyable too with the music. It really set the atmosphere. As well as the improved aspect of verticality that was added into this game. It really gave it a nice boost.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game despite it's flaws. It added another enjoyable story to the franchise and sets it up for a next one. Which I'll be eagerly waiting for. I've been a long time fan of this franchise and love to see it continue.

I recommend this game honestly. It may not be worth full price to many. But hey, you can get this game for $30 from some places online. (Which is what I did. I paid $34 after tax). I think this game is worth at least that price if not a little bit more.

Cons:
Story overall could have been fleshed out a little bit more
Rushed setup for the ending
Poorly executed/rushed ending itself
Small overall map size despite it's density. Gave off a clausterphobic vibe
Some game crashes (though hardly any)

Pros:
Enjoyable gameplay (stealth, commando, mix of both)
Story was engaging despite being thin in some parts
Character development was pretty good
Overall atmospere
Graphics, Sound, Art direction