Neue Rezensionen von jesse

not a sequel in any spiritual or traditional sense. this is just a remake. "reboot" is too generous a title to give it, despite what the title screen will tell you. nothing inherently has been rebooted in this world. a missed opportunity to tie it back into the original games cyclical mythos. its dragons dogma: again, only, the core interactivity of the game is modernized. the physicality is heftier. animations and models compliment the flashy, reactive combat. monsters drudge and trip and collapse under their own weight. nearly every jagged hill and crumbled ruin is climbable. it leaves the world before you open to so many possibilities. therein lies DD2s biggest problem: in that, it capitalizes on nothing it lays out. its an intricate bedspread of not a lot going on. the content in this game is the antithesis to ELDEN RINGS design. every cave is more or less the same (dont expect puzzles or, say, special encounters). theres very little unique rewards or items. enemy variety and variation is lacking significantly. second to that, is the lack of any noticeably interesting landmarks. many ruins or dungeons just lead to nothing, if that have anything of note at all. so, you have a vast, tactile open world, that demands planning out your weight and journey beforehand, with no good rewards for exploration. the sparks are there, of course. discovering the Elven area on your own is, again, full of possibilities. the promise that a world as alive as this one would offer some sort of payoff. but theres a maximum of two quests there, and thats it. along with only three NPCs that offer you any attention. you will never ever go back to that area. it doesn't evolve with the player, or change in any meaningful way.

the overall story and narrative faffs about, too. frustratingly so. confusingly so. characters arent given enough screen-time or even importance in relation to the Arisen. you can't meaningfully interact with the queen or nadinia. or any of their underlings. throughout the whole campaign, the Arisen is being fed political intrigue. which is a spark interesting, but thats just it - you're only EVER told. the secretive plots, whispers of affairs and relationships that, on the surface, paint interesting social and political relationships you might be able to contribute to. in reality, this goes just about no where. in one example, the Arisen is to prepare themselves to the Coronation. a gathering at the royal hall, with major players to attend, like the queen and the false Arisen, who the whole plot more or less jingles just behind your ear. it's a culmination of the first half of your journey in DD2. its the climax of act 1. it feels important, and for the most part, it is. until you get there. until all the faffing about sneaking around the castle halls, gathering allies, leads to literally nothing. you, your main pawn, and captain brant walk up to the castle. your pain gets begins to fall under the false Arisens control, and the three of you just... walk back. back to the tavern. nobody tries to stop you. no climatic fight or confrontation. no new information revealed. your Arisen doesnt split off on their own to investigate. the three of you hobble up, one of you gets a bellyache, and you unceremoniously hobble back. it's laughably anticlimatic. and that's the tone and style of storytelling throughout the rest of the main questline. you are a hobbler. people tell you to run back and forth, and you run back n forth, while all the other players in the game of medieval chest cease to exist.

DD2 is, ultimately, a disappointment. its the biggest case of blue balls. give it time. it needs DLC. DD1 wasn't much either til Dark Arisen. while that game has excuses. namely budget and overambitious design in a gaming landscape that was mid-evolution towards the kindof games DD1 would snuggle up to, DD2 does not. if this is the game Itsuno and his team wanted to make, then so be it. its an unwashed cupped palm offering delicious, honeyed mead. i dont regret my time with the game. i dont regret exploring the peaks and valleys of Vermund and Battahl. the systematic relationships i built with fellow players pawns will hold a special place in my heart. but theres just nothing else here. more a bounced check than a soaring adventure of kingdoms intertwined.

lovely short lil horror game about dysphoria and body horror.

Resident Evil 7 is, by all accounts, very much a classic RE game caught in some weird modern-survival horror twist. The first hour or so, depending on how much you can handle and how quick you explore, is very much akin to the likes of recent horror games. Stealth is key, and your resources are low enough to not justify using them so quickly. Its tense, and geniunely scary in a way you've experienced before. Then, it blends seemlessly into that classic RE feel. Examining items, inventory managment, limited ammo and an abundence of enemies that, while stronger than you, are able to be taken out if you've got the skill for it. You'll feel right at home with how the gameplay loop works itself out, if you've ever played the first few REs. And this isn't just rose-tinted glasses speaking. "Oh, its good because it feels like old RE". It just WORKS. Who knew, in 2017, that the formula for RE1-3 would hold up? It's crazy. There's just this real sense of progression and discovery with each new area you explore... This revitalization of a bloated and confused series is exactly what it needed; to jolt some energy back into its corpse and allow it to breathe again.

For a long time fan, this is honestly exciting. If you HAVEN'T played any of the older Resident Evils, or even any Resident Evil in general, I suggest picking this game up. While canonically it takes place after RE6, the world Capcom setup feels just as disconnected and bubbled as Resident Evil 4. The audio is ambient as hell. The old house creaks and croaks as you explore for puzzles pieces and resources. The dialogue is written well, and there are rarely any facepalm moments(depending on how you feel about the tone of the game). Gunplay feels and plays firm. Guns echo powerful blasts as they're fired and the enemies react accordingly, whether you shoot them in the head or the leg, damage will show up as they are hit and they stumble back in the most responsive way. And the replayability is THERE, for sure. It's probably not as replayable as say, RE4 or 5, but there are secrets to unlock, and difficulty effects the general layout of puzzle items, and items in general, keeping players on their toes. There's not a lot else to say here. Capcom have REALLY outdone themselves. There's just so much love and care put into this game. You really feel it through every new area you explore, to every puzzle, and with every new "Ooo what's this?" moment you'll experience. It's so rare to play a game now that doesn't feel like it was churned out in a day, and Capcom proves they have they drive to refine their most popular series.

Unforunately, and this isn't as bad as Dishonored 2 but It has to be brought up, the PC port isn't 100% there. When loading into a new area, the game will slow down to a holt and freeze, sometimes for more than 10 seconds. This KILLED the pace of the game for me sometimes, and I was really disappointed something like that would be in the game. However, im sure Capcom will fix it within the week. It's not that bad of an issue, as the game will run smooth in almost every other way, but it's still an issue.

This review form here on out will contain spoilers. If you're on the fence about the game still, please don't be. This is the kindof quality craftmanship in games that we need to support.

My couple of gripes and nitpicks with the game also have to do with the way VHS tapes are handled, enemy variety. So the first VHS tape you stumble upon makes the most logical sense for it to be a VHS tape. It's a couple of guys and they're recording a show for the internet. Now, granted, you're probably not going to record on a camera that can be transfered to the VHS format, but lets ignore that for now. Second VHS is "Mia"... And it really doesn't make sense. Why would Mia be using a camera? How did she get it? Was it Lucas's? If that's the case, why would she be recording anyway? In hopes that Ethan would find the VHS? But how would she get it to him? See, while I enjoy the VHS bits for the change of pace, they don't make sense logically within the story. They're just a way for Capcom to foreshadow certain parts of the level. Buuut... They couldn't think of a more clever way to go about it? The third tape is "Happy Birthday", which doesn't make much sense either, but It doesn't need repeating. The BIGGEST offender to this lapse in logic is the last tape, with Mia on the ship. It plays out more like a flashback than an actual video tape. It's so odd. She's running around, clearly not holding a camera, and at the end she falls into the ocean. How's the tape not damaged? I know... It really is a nitpick, but if this game were less than excellant this kinda off branded thinking about how to exposition to the player would just be real dumb.

Enemy variety is, again, a semi-small issue. But, I was really hoping for much greater enemy variety than what's in the game currently. There's 4 types of enemies, not counting the multiple boss fights you have with the family, or the bugs. There's the Molded, another Molded but with a big arm, the smaller but faster Molded(admittedly my favorite, because they remind me of Lickers), and lastly the Fat Molded. This more grounded enemy varience certainly helps with the disconnected and more personal feel of the game, but it was kinda dissapointing. When I think of Resident Evil, I think of the multitude of creatures you'll be facing as you progress through the game. It's not really a think you notice or pick up on, because the game paces itself well enough, but I was hoping that with the bayou setting, we'd be seeing local wildlife infected too. Resident Evil games are all about that body horror, but it feels like RE7 is lacking in abundance of it. (Besides the second time you fight Marguerite)

Having found a decent enough guide on getting semi-steady frames(if you're curious, It should be on the front page of the r/Dishonored), and at the cost of my eyes, I was able to play through and beat Emilys side of Dishonored 2, which I will consider the main story. This review is PURELY based on the game itself, as I have been able to play it, and nothing about this review will be about the garbage preformance and awful mouse movement.

To start, Dishonored 2 is good. It's pretty good. the world is expansive, well read, full of lore and detail. The gameplay feels familiar but fun, with crazy new powers and playstyles to master. Combat feels exciting and stealth is still enjoyable. Dishonored 2's massive story is felt through its level design, where levels feel a lot more open than in Dishonored. Multiple paths are discovered running through the level and at the start, making you want to reply missions over and over just to see what you missed. Voice acting and animations are all spot on, too. Visually Dishonored 2 improves upon Dishonoreds great art direction, with characters looking more rugged and dirty than ever. Enviroments feel diverse too. From big cities to the smaller slums, they all look and feel like they belong where they belong. Sometimes I was so eager to just explore and talk the NPCs that I wouldn't even want to do the mission I was supposed to. That's how much Dishonored 2 will suck you in.

THAT BEING SAID... I cannot recommend Dishonored 2 at its current state. And that's because of it's horrid bugs and balance.

The BIGGEST and most heartbreaking bug I've encounted is the audio. All of it. Every audio cue or bit of music is prone to bug out. Sometimes they'll play, sometimes they won't. Dialogue will play halfway through and then cut out randomly. I remember two very CONSISTANT parts of the game where the audio was for sure bugged to ♥♥♥♥, and it killed it for me. I had a whole in-game cutscene play out with NO dialogue audio. I had subtitles on, but it was 30 seconds of silence as characters moved about and mouthed nothing. Another scenario, I was stuck on a part and had to keep reloading, hoping to get it perfect. Two NPCs were conversing, but I could not hear it. No matter how many times I reloaded, the audio was never playing. It wasn't until the last time I had to reload the save did the dialogue go through, only to have it cutout halfway through, like I mentioned before. It's insane how something like this snuck through playtesting. I can understand bad preformance. But this is incredibly lazy. Incredibly stupid. I'm not the only person to have experienced this either. Audio is such an important part of a game where STEALTH is the core experience. But I sure as hell had lots of times where I couldn't hear footsteps. Combat music will start up 2 seconds after being alerted, fade out at random times. Ambient audio cuts out weirdly. Sounds coming from your character will stop.

As for combat, and this is just really silly. Combat can feel as alive as you make it, but the single most stupidly overpowered thing in the game is the slide. If you're sprinting and try to crouch, you'll do it a slide. Simple enough, you can use that to sneak around. You can ALSO use it to throw an enemy off balance, leading to an execution. This one move is SO strong, you can carry yourself through the whole game on hard with it. That's what I did. It works on regular guards, elite guards, dogs, bloodfly keepers, witches, and even bosses. No joke, I did this on the FINAL boss. Like, this should be the challenging part of the game. This is what the game was leading up to, but oh... I slide into their feet and stabbed them and that was it. It actually shocked me at first, because I wasn't expecting the final boss to be put down like every enemy besides clockwork soldiers.

So... that's about it. PREFORMANCE ISSUES ASIDE, Dishonored 2 is good, no doubt, but there's no way I'm recommending this game in the current state that its in. It's a story based, world building experience, and all it's parts need to function to be enjoyed as such. My BF kept telling me to wait for patches and bug fixes, but I had already got pretty far into it. Having found a way to make it semi-playable, I wanted to see it through to the end. Now that I have, It's apparent the game, on PC at least, wasn't tested all that well...

As of 11/16, we still have not gotten any word out about when the patch should be coming, or what we can expect. They first made the announcement on 11/11. Whether the patch will also fix some of the annoying and reptitive bugs is another story.

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At the moment of release, Dishonored 2 is unplayable for me on my fairly mid-range rig(i5-4670 @ 3.40GHz, 8 Gb Ram DDR3, GTX 770, running on windows 10. As a point of reference, this is a machine that can run just about any NEW triple A game comfortably, if you don't mind low/medium settings), and unplayable for a majority of the people with PCs lower and higher than mine. Don't feed into shoddy PC ports and garbage optimization. Don't purchase this game until the issue is fixed for good.

As a side note, I wanna talk about the consistant and obnoxious bugs I've encountered in the short time I've been able to play the game. So on top of the poor optimization, there are also audio bugs, where audio will cut seemingly at random. This is not just dialouge either. Combat music and sound effects such as hitting your blade against a wall will refuse to play a sound. Or once it does, it'll stop without warning as if interupted by something. I've had Emily killed by the odd physics a few times too, such as setting a sleeping body down on the ground and watching it fly back to kill me, or setting down a tank of whale oil only to have it explode mysteriously.

Behind Dishonored 2s garbage performance and immersion breaking(if occasionally funny) bugs is a good game, I'm sure of it, but this release is wholey unacceptable. I understand a patch is being worked on and should be out in a few days. Here's hoping said patch will bring the game up to speed with its predecessor in terms of playability, because this is disappointing.

get it unless you're some kindof idiot