Recent reviews by pixelgoo

D4 99$ horse bad

D4 99$ horse bad

Impressions from the campaign in general are OK. The game is a solid ARPG release even considering it is an early access. Still a lot of work to do.

It is a step up from first Path of Exile in many directions, specifically learning curve (clean interface with extensive tooltip system helps a lot). There are still many details with regards to skills and crafting, but they do not feel overwhelming. Not sure why but compared to first game everything just feels more intuitive.

Combat feels fresh but definitely very tough. It’s kinda expected to die (sometimes a lot) while learning mobs and bosses attack patterns. Compared to other ARPGs you can't just run around and clear packs of stupid mobs. Even normal enemies can be dangerous, each of them has unique attack patterns and 2-3 normal enemies can easily kill you if you chill for a second. Some of the bosses needs health to be cut in half, and melee classes need a lot of buffs to be have a reason to play them besides flavour.

Restrictive and hardcore gameplay since level 1 feels a bit tedious. It can be a fun challenge but ARPGs for me are about power fantasy of your chosen class - and it cannot be achieved at the moment in PoE2, in that regard first game is still better. The game just feels too much souls-like and I cannot imagine playing through some of the maps in the campaign again.

Highlights of the game are fantastic boss battles (visually and gameplay wise bosses are probably the best among games in the genre), character customization (various playstyles with different weapons and classes, big passive tree to explore) and probably best graphics and visual effects among all games in the genre (or close second to Wolcen).

The worst parts are unfortunately most important ones. Itemization is bad, maybe once or twice I got excited about an item. Loot is too scarce and rare enemies or even bosses drop nothing. While there is quite extensive crafting with orbs that can help you in theory make from common standard weapon a rare and good one, in reality it's almost impossible to craft anything fitting your build.

Another weak part of the game is slow mobility of character combined with huge maps. Some maps are just a slog and grind to go trough without even any good loot to get from that.

I think other games in the genre are still better in other aspects. Diablo and Last Epoch are better for fulfilling power fantasy of your class, Grim Dawn has much better itemization, maps and even class building, Wolcen has better cinematic campaign and more juicy balance between "zoom-zoom" through the maps and tactical combat...

This is technically early access release and I'm sure they will fix and improve the good foundation a lot. For now game gets stale quite soon. Will wait for future updates and more content added.

Supergiant Games has perfect history record and is clearly a very talented and passionate team that produced multiple masterpieces, some of the best games of the last decade. They know how to cook, and Hades 2 is a solid OK base to cook upon if they wish.

However, it is not it. It tries very hard to catch up to what made first Hades great but meanwhile forgets on what made Supergiant Games great. Now it's a generic, ironically gloomy and uninspiring game that lost spark and innovation of the previous title.

The game lost its focus and boldness of Hades, Pyre and Transistor, and it is visible most after doing one run in Hades 2 and then coming back to the first game. The team clearly was trying to make a lot of quirky and cool decisions but ended up forgetting to make the game fun and meaningful. Some of the decisions can be fixed in Early Access, others unfortunately will get to the release.

Hades 2 is not a God-like roguelite (you never get to feel even half of Zagreus' power), it feels more like isometric Terraria half of the time. There are way too many resources, grinding and metagame elements instead of actual pure roguelite gameplay and/or build making. Even when you get up to the pace, you realize that Olympus gods lost their power together with main character -- boons you get are often lackluster, you acquire very few of them and most are way too conditional to feel good. The same feeling is around everything else -- combat with "press and hold to get effect" is way too tactical for bullet hell that game creates, new weapons except maybe "ghost torches" are totally out of synergy and even if you overcome all of this, game tries to punish you hard for no reason by handicapping your progress but not in a good way as in Hades 1. I really don't understand how they managed to downgrade the best part of previous title.

There are some new interesting additions though -- I really liked Arachne armor and possibility of changing your look with addition of some new power or buff, but currently, just like most of gameplay systems, it feels non-impactful. Boss battles are probably best part of the game and they managed to get my heart pump like in Hades 1, especially second biome boss, that was really good arena and character(s).

If we look past gameplay, things get weird. Most of the Gods went woke (is that Chronos influence as well or just DEI hire?) -- there is no reason to make everyone either fat, ugly or black, or everything combined. Hephaestus in wheelchair made me spit my tea all over Steam Deck for real. And, as always, where is woke, there is lack of inspiration (final boss, its persona and build up is probably worst among all Supergiant Games titles) and fear of doing strong characters (Nemesis is the only character in the game worth actually listening to). Writing quality dropped, and it is clear that there isn't much left to show and tell. While first game was surprising the player with "Greek gods but hot and modern" world, second game is more like piggybacking on the old ideas. Transistor 2 died for this, that game had MUCH more potential for sequel in both gameplay and story.

Nevertheless, Hades 2 holds high quality standard (especially for Early Access) and it's worth playing just because of the fantastic soundtrack and sound design (Darren Korb is a genius) and visuals (animations and effects are amazing). However, gameplay wise, this is definitely a downgrade from the first Hades, AND it doesn't bring anything new to the table.

It is fun to get to the final boss once but after that you will most likely get bored, while in first Hades even in Early Access with much less content it was fun to start new run and make some fun build, again and again.

Fun little spiritual successor to Heroes of Might and Magic series. My favourite HOMM was actually 4 and this game does not get better than that, unfortunately. Neither writing nor mechanics surpass old classic. The game plays well but lacks that oomph and nuance old Heroes had (and still have). There each race was really unique in many aspects, with heroes having classes and specializations, artifacts actually being impactful and cities having much more depth in development.

However, Songs of Conquest is not a bad game by itself. It brings a few fun mechanics to the table and I quite enjoyed my Rana campaign (frogs and dragons... wow). The game has a lot of modern quality of life features, sleek design, gorgeous pixel art, fine soundtrack, its own lore and stories. Gameplay wise some of new ideas are great (research and dynamic magic system) and I wish devs pushed them further.

Others feel weird. Such as inability to have castle or units by any other faction other than your own, or very linear unit development. There aren't that many army ideas you can do with 1 race and I'm kinda "done" with my faction after 7 hour campaign, since it feels like I've seen almost everything game has to offer.

Still, good fun to pick up on sale both for old and new players of the genre.

Thanks for Ukrainian localisation!

Braid was one of the first titles in my childhood after which I realised games are art. It is one of the most unique indie games that popularised and pioneered the genre in a way it is known nowadays. Fantastic soundtrack and visuals complement intricate puzzle gameplay.

Some of the puzzles can really blow your mind away, however you can finish the game without solving most hardcore of them. But if you do solve them, there is quite an interesting hidden plot twist in the end of the story.

The main mechanic of the game - free time manipulation - is definitely one of a kind. Braid still holds strong all these years after, and it's a must have to play for any self respecting gamer.

Remember Me 2 when?

My favorite DLC to the first Borderlands. It's not as relevant to the overarching story as Knoxx DLC, however it wraps the Borderlands 1 plot nicely (the last mission is nearby Fyrestone where we get out of the bus), has much less tedious enemies and locations, and has classic Claptrap related humour that I personally love.

Relatively to the base game, it's a good DLC. For what it is it's a great addition if you want to stay a little more in the first Borderlands. You get more story to go through, more levels, more interactive enemies, more Pandora to explore. If you want to play only 1 DLC from first game, this would be it as it actually has relevant story to the rest of the series, introducing Athena.

However, a lot of content here such as certain missions, enemies and locations are just tedious to say the least, even for Borderlands 1 standards. Long ass driving, annoying Lancer soldiers and the first raid boss, if you actually manage to kill it somehow solo, drops underwhelming loot and has to be killed tens of times for damn Pearl rarity gun.

If you're playing through the series, still it's worth a run for the story and background before the Pre-Sequel later.