Recent reviews by AtLastBossCarryMe

I give this game a 85/15 positive split.

Positive: Kudos to all those who provided assets to the game (Artists, VFX, Modelers, Level Designers, Coders and so on). You made the game look and feel and play great. I enjoyed the details and entire universe created.

Negative: Huge MINUS to all those who made decisions. Game felt like a master class in bad game design choices. Let's add an entire system of stupid space battles, let's put mines and traps everywhere, let's make the UI / management / hopping between space screens a complete frustrating over complex mess, let's have underdeveloped/underused systems (Dog/Here/Icon), let's make non skippable/non saveable / in a row cutscenes forcing player to slog through, let's make lopsided classes (melee a joke, pyro OP) and lastly - let's put this all on top of a really bad system that will force us to have excruciatingly long load / save times for every little change of scenery! Wow.

Had the game trimmed the fat, improved it's UI and technical issues it would be an easy 90+% game. I actually left after mid act 2 for weeks due to boredom/slog. I came back to finish the game because the part that was really good was a gem and I felt it needed to be seen to the end. I had no issues with any of the Acts, story, difficulty or anything related to the actual RPG/tactical gameplay. All my negatives were based on bad technicals, UI and design choices.

In summary, I had a great GREAT time with the tactical iso-metric turn based portion of the game and all the character leveling up systems, gear and RPG elements related to them. Everything else related to the ease of playing the actual game really took me out of the immersion the creators of that universe worked so hard to pull me in. That feels like a missed opportunity for greatness.

Firstly, as of 1/11/25 - I'm not finished with the game, but on the next to next to last missions.

Secondly, this is like my 3rd or 4th attempt to play and finish this game. The first 2-3 attempts ended in frustration and disgust. Last attempt was around mid 2024 lasting 5 mins loading a previous save game and hating it and before that was when I left that same save game in 2018.

So it took me about 6 - 6 1/2 years to get back to (maybe/hopefully) finishing this game. I only did it because I had no idea KCD 2 was coming out and learned that like a week ago. Feeling like I should try yet again, I decided to fire it up and start anew. Here's my thoughts.

1) MODS. They are a must have. Thank goodness I decided to play this game 7 years after it was released. All the mods saved me from quitting again. Especially save-anytime mod. I don't care what you say - I'd hate worrying about save schnapps when I need to leave my PC but can't save because of that sillyness. Also mods for a bunch of other QoL things just make this game better. Additionally, so do all the graphical looking and performance mods.

2) WIKIS. In 2018, when this released, there was no helping a lost soul on a poorly designed quest. That's what eventually broke me in 2018 when I first quit. I was 66% through the game and couldn't understand what to do. Especially when the quest has to do with day/night timings or scripted things. There was the possibility it bugged out and you just didn't know if you were the error or the game was. The quests can be rough and at least now I could see if it was me or the game and see if i could correct it to continue on.

3) COMBAT. I decided to master the combat this time - not run away from embracing it like the bi**h I was in 2018. I took my time, learned how to master parry/smack your face and the game is rofl easy now. I'm no gaming master, but to prove my point, in this run I fought and beat the master trainer near Rattay with just a longsword and no clothes at all on in a 'real' weapon fight. I got hit once and master blocked him until he cried.

4) NOT SKIPPING CUTSCENES. Yes, I was impatient in 2018. This time I decided not to get irrated with the endless "find this guy who has a task for you to do before you can get an answer from him , but of course the task he gives you is to find a guy....who will have a task for you to do before he gives you an answer....' and so on. The story and amount of side / minor characters gets silly but I stuck with it (mostly) by embracing the videos.

5). SKIPPING SIDE QUESTS. Unless I was just super excited to do one, I just want to finish the game. The side quests do nothing for you really. Unlike other RPGs where you need those to build up XP, in this game you really don't need any XP and money flows like water. If you need XP, you just fight the weapon master guy at Rattay and get every important skill leveled.

The game is ambitious. It's very pretty (mostly) and the timeframe and immersion into the world is truly outstanding. However, it's full of flaws. Many bugged quests, I had crashes on a siege twice (had to lower graphcis and re-verify my files). The game play is both brilliant and wonky at the same time. Day / night cycles are cool - until they aren't. Shop keepers opening/closing is realistic , standing in one spot burning 12 hours until they re-open and restock money so you can sell more stuff or buy more potions is dumb. Money is hard until you get about 100 gold, then suddenly you go from 100g to 10k easy. Once you can beat a guy with armor , you suddenly are rich. Money becomes no object and I ignore haggling because why bother? I'm rich. Food/hunger/energy is a drag. It's just annoying. Get a mod. Fast travel is ...well, slow. With interruptions. Why? Quests are constantly updating on my screen even if I don't care about them (how many times when I get food in my inventory do I need to see I have x/y amount for so-and-so's quest?). Some quests are hard scripted (all the battles) where you are useless and forced to complete many in a row in some cases.

Bottom line is the game just makes things awkward. It's got an amazing outer coat of beauty, interesting setting and (ok-ish) story, with fine attention to details and the allure of a fleshed out immersive world. Until you dig just a little deeper and you realize - it's a 2018 game. It's not magic. In fact, it's broke in a lot of spots. I think in 2018 it was broke-unfun/quit for me and in 2025 my mindset going in was fresh and better and now it's broke-quirky fun this time instead.

In conclusion, I have looked forward to this playthough however, in spite of those negatives and I've been enjoying it as the ability to mod/fight/follow the story as made for a more well rounded experience. Couple that with this time I knew what I was getting into first - a game that requires patience and an investment. This time I put something into this game and in return it's given me an enjoyable experience.

However, one thing this experience taught me is that - I will in no way be purchasing KCD 2 on release! LOL. (unless I cave hard but hope not to). This , (similar to games by another developer - owlcat) feel like it needs a lot of simmering and baking (and mods and wikis and patches!) before it's even remotely worth. I know the hype will be real but I'm not falling for another Cyberpunk 2077.

I like this game, mostly.....now....7 years later with a lot of help/updates/mods and a refocused mind set.

I look forward to giving KCD 2 a try and maybe even a review - - - in about 7 years.

See you then (maybe).

EDIT: Finished the game! The end was ....a slog. Lot's of awkward time killing quests, more running around the map, and awkward little skirmishes where you don't need to fight at all. Meh. Ending was mixed bag - like the whole game. Over ambitious, excelling in some areas, failing in others. Hopefully KCD 2 is an all around step up. We'll find out - - - in 7 years.

It's a nice game. Kudos for a complete, polished product!
It's an inexpensive, very light deck building rogue-type game with a charming atmosphere.
The downside is...it feels a little light, in spite of all the cards / characters. Maybe it's just my approach where I know the path to the final boss always is almost always the same every run and therefore I know I can pare my deck down to around 5-7 cards on a good run , building synergy with 1 or 2 upgraded cards I pick up along the way and that's my deck for the run. Hopefully score a trinket that synergizes and win.
That's the basic approach every run. It feels like there was more variety in some other deck builders where you have a bit more randomness, a bit more choices (via encounters and items to use, etc) - whereas here it's fairly stripped down as far as the actual playing loop. All the cards/characters don't really factor in like I thought they would considering in a run you won't see that large of a percentage of cards in relation to the total available in the combined crew pool. Combine that with many are weak/non-optimal and you really default (at least I do) to passing almost all the time save when an upgraded card comes by.
With that said, it's a neat game, a fun story (although I lost interest in having to unlock so many memories) and the allure of pushing to the hardest difficulty isn't there as the loop itself isn't alluring enough.
However, at the full price point, it's still a worthwhile game and I applaud any game this polished with charm and passion that seems fresh and fun.

Great artwork, theme, cuteness. Sadly for me, it lacks depth, is too repetitive and therefore becomes boring enough I won't finish it. Left me thinking the gameplay loop and systems were just too simplistic under the great artwork.

Great game, far exceeded expectations. It shouldn't matter if a game was developed by a massive company or just 1 person (I think this game is just 1 person) - but if this game truly is developed by 1 person - that's pretty miraculous.

The game has a variety of systems that are all detailed and thorough (physical, ballistic, crafting, travel, 24h cycles, weather, world effects, and more).

There is no predictable game loop here - there's a story , lots of detail in the world and characters and plenty of ways to tackle each phase of the game (stealth, action, small weapons, large weapons, etc).

I found the game to feel "complete" and without any major issues or bugs. Something fairly unseen in game development today. Massive points for putting out a game that feels consistently well produced from start to finish.

There are some issues with the game, but mostly are smaller gripes or simply developer choices I didn't agree with.

For example, some quests are written a little obtusely. You may not remember who/where a character is, some quests ("poop") are just a little too laborious, inventory management is a bit of a weak spot as there's no filters and many icons are just tiny and tough to distinguish without tooltips, and the overall graphics - while animations and sound is amazing - the muddyness of the game overall is sometimes drab and bland. That's the atmosphere though, but it's like playing a little bit of a dated graphics feeling game unfortunately.

If on sale, and you like the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. vibe - it's an easy buy. If it's not on sale and you still really like that vibe its still an easy buy at full price as cheap as it is. Plus the developer is voraciously active on the boards supporting this game like he just released it yesterday so there's plenty of life in it.

Like Cody Rhodes....."Finish THE STORY"
One of the grossest, bloated, in-accurate initially represented episodic timelines ever presented in video game history for me.
10+ yrs from EA and still story ep5 not delivered.

It's OK/Meh. After about 5 1/2 hrs invested, I'm uninstalling.

I don't want to give it a thumbs down because that would be unfair. It is a solid game. It's inexpensive, polished with charm, nice graphics and a decent game play loop. Being from the same devs as Monster Train (a great game!), I expected something similar in complexity and interesting systems but instead felt this was a bit of a 'lite' version of a rogue lite (puns intended).

Why ? Because while the loop is solid, it's pretty short, it's real repetitive (much more so than say StS or other famous roguelikes) and feels uninspired. There seems not to be a lot of interesting permutations in the actual battles to me. You see all the Venn diagrams on the ground and arrows telling you how you will be damaged and it's just about maximizing your mana usage/abilities and mitigating damage (via ability or just moving out of the 'bad fire' on the ground).

Some games can thrive on the simplicity and amazing loop, but this one doesn't feel that way. It's simply attack, move/mitigate, repeat. The loop also has you choosing which paths to take but it's just basically one node at a time and you just choose if you want harder or not. There's not a lot in the 'planning' of the run per se.

The characters feel fairly mundane in their abilities, with their 'special' abilities being to me , particularly uninteresting and underwhelming. So far it also seems like the characters share similar themes on their abilities (an AoE, a movement, a big hitter, buffs/debuffs) so nothing seems terribly unique in gameplay between them. Speaking of gameplay, there seems to be some stronger builds than others so I found myself more times just looking/rerolling for those ability upgrades and items - reducing how many viable options there are.

The most intriguing aspect is the ability to delete some of your items in order to progress tiers in their category making your character overall stronger in that category - perhaps buffing crit damage or damage mitigation and so on, but at the expense of deleting an item. Again, however, some are just simply much better than others.

I give the devs credit for a complete , bug free, pleasant game that while charming and enjoyable, just seems too simplistic with a lot of extra fluff on the edges (cosmetics, tons of item unlockables, quests, etc) that unfortunately for me seem only to be more like distractions to keep me from realizing how short the runs are and how fairly similar they become.

I still give it a recommendation for the price point, good quality and especially if you like roguelike games and want a slight twist on the genre with a tactical turn based, movement inspired game.

The game is nice, but not great. I think there is a neat idea here that while complete , could have been deeper and provided something truly amazing and unique.

EDIT: Note - I only played solo, I can expect the co-op aspect to add some fun social aspects.

While a somewhat basic game, it was enjoyable for what it is. The main loop is simply executing missions, getting rewards to upgrade your team and progressing the story via defeating the 'stage' bosses.

Graphically pleasing, nice sound effects and decent tech trees. The RPG/leveling/gear elements are a bit basic as there's like only a handful of melee options, many more ranged weapons and ultimately armor is just boring/minimal upgrades. However, it's sufficient enough to still be enjoyable with a little bit of build variety.

If you enjoy turn based games, the 40k universe and lore and can grab this on sale - it's a solid purchase. If you are looking for advanced depth, varied missions and complex systems, this isn't quite there (maybe Mechanicus 2).

Review for DLC only: A disappointment.

NOT because of the common reasons I've read in negative reviews of bad designed bosses or technical issues, but because I've come to realize that this DLC is all about the things in Souls games I de-value vs all the things in Souls games I highly value.

For reference, I've completed the DLC (and beat almost all optional bosses/Bayle/etc) with a Mohg Spear/Fingerprint Shield/Heavy Armor boring build.

For example, in the early Souls games (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls) - I thoroughly enjoyed close quarters combat , exploring castles, ruins, nooks, crannies. Having to work your way through a themed area/level while fighting mobs to joyfully reach a bonfire and then continue onward to the next bonfire and eventually your reward of a final boss fight. Think of all the epic "locations" and "cities" in the Souls games. Those are great to me. An example in this game is Castle Ensis. When I got there I was excited as it harkened back to the start of Dark Souls/Demon Souls with a castle and I eagerly dove in. I was shocked after just a few minutes of pushing through mobs I was at the boss door.

Also great to me is my character's progression. The finding of new weapons, items, spells and the constant struggle to gain some foothold in the world as I level up. Getting 1 pt in a certain attribute to get to that breakpoint where it allowed me to equip something felt great.

In the DLC, both things above feel extremely minimalized. Riding around in your horse is paramount. The space is vast. Having to work through mobs to get through a 'level' isn't really there compared to the other soul's series. Sure, there are parts, but just some parts. You can ride into a town and just blow through it if you choose. World bosses are a neat idea but just copy & pasted dragons and field bosses. Same with the 'dungeons' you find that are copy and pastes. With leveling it's now just about how fast can you spam some OP strat to farm millions of souls in an hour as players are just super powerful by this point trivializing the levelling process to a quick checking off a box to get a quick 10, 50, 100 levels.

Bosses need to be over tuned to compensate and everything in the game feels more like an arms race with maxed out stats across the board for everything and everyone , including you. There's no nuance. No decisions on advantages/disadvantages. Every boss has every thing (fast, strong, defense, offense, aoe, etc). And most people by this point in the DLC also can have high str and dex and int and fai and arc .....so no spell or ashe of war or summons or most anything feels like an interesting or significant upgrade to be excited about. To me that is evident in the lazy design of the Scadutree fragments - just collect these and you get overall buffed up. That's not really interesting apart from just the hunting to find them.

The DLC is clearly designed as content for people who enjoy 'git gud' and the DLC aims to come at the player hard in boss fights. That's cool. I've beaten every Souls game from FromSoft and every other Souls game from other developers and enjoy the genre a lot. However this game feels beautiful but empty - both literally in it's world riding around with little to no secrets or any interesting POIs or mobs I need to work through and it's overall boring world design of just lots of cliffs to it's empty feeling of copy and paste bosses and lackluster 'zones' that I do need to work through.

Sadly the true disappointment is after enjoying the struggle in Elden Ring base game and spending around 150 hrs in there, but only maybe 20-30hrs in the DLC , I simply don't enjoy the different type of struggle in this game - which is the struggle to stay interested.

I probably would have felt less disappointment if I bought this on a 50%+ discount. So that's my recco for those wondering if worth the investment if on a budget. If you enjoy the open world, horse combat , world bosses and extreme boss fights, and just all around are a fan of every aspect of Elden Ring and want more of it - it's worth full price. If you liked Elden Ring but harken back to DemonSouls/DarkSouls as your favorites in the FromSoft universe and enjoy the journey of developing your character, the feel of early Elden Ring and other Souls games more - it's a discount purchase only , or not at all.

In conclusion, the DLC is not bad (mostly). There is a challenge, it can be beautiful and it continues the Elden Ring adventure. It does have a distinct approach that definitely funnels more towards horse/open world/arms racing than progression as a design choice (which is fine). Where it is somewhat objectively bad is in the lazy Scadutree/Revered Ashe fragments to make you 'git gud' as a global band-aid and some of the technical issues foks are having with framerate. Where it left me wanting is in connecting me back to what I personally enjoyed most in previous FromSoft titles which is interesting level design, themed progression based areas and an excitement in advancing my character in different and meaningful ways to meet challenges.

I finished this game 7 years after I bought it for $20.
7 Years ago I hated this game. It felt crude and janky.
7 Years later it still feels crude and janky - but I love it.
The difference is since then I've gotten interested in 40k Lore and other 40k games.
Having an interest and ability to associate with the factions and lore definitely enhances the experience. That and the enhanced version of this game really help. The enhanced version makes the game look really nice. I was pleasantly blown away by the level details , crisp armors/weapon models and the overall ambiance.
Where this game shines is in the atmosphere. It's tense, it's gritty, it's constantly a struggle, it's kill or be killed - it's 40k.
If you want to live the fantasy of gearing up as a beefy armored death machine for the Emperor - this is the game for you. It's short (13 hrs) , it's intense and it's straightforward (go to point A B C and kill everything in between).
This isn't a masterpiece, it's not without some jank, but it captures the feel of being a slow , hulking warrior.
I would say this isn't a purchase at full price, but 20$ is just about top end. Anything less and it's pretty much a steal just for the intense experience.