Nylige anmeldelser av Piramidion

Why is everyone so salty? It's a good AA game!

A beautiful handcrafted game with pleasant atmosphere, fairy tale visuals and enjoyable soundtrack. I'm happy to have been one of the supporters of this project on Kickstarter and hope that more people will get acquainted with the indie side of Ukrainian gamedev.

One of the most visually stunning games I've ever played.

But, as far as I know. the standoff bug has been there for years, and it's one of the most important mechanics in the game. This review will remain negative until the bug is fixed, because it's unacceptable. It just ruins the experience.

EDIT: So the standoff bug has finally been fixed. Changing this game's review to positive even if not for the gameplay, then because of the sheer beauty of the game. It's a work of art and a good way to peek into some of the Japanese history and culture. The gameplay is somewhat Sekiro-like, but quite repetitive, though it doesn't prevent me from enjoying the game.

It's a very weird game, somewhat creepy too. The puzzles are pretty good though, I enjoyed most of them.

The game itself consists of two parts (the first one ends with the credits roll). The first one is full of the said puzzles and fun. The second one is slow and boring, and there are puzzles that you cannot use mere logic to solve. Instead you need to watch some external videos, read news from the developers, play their other games and stuff like that. After finding most of the cubes (except one) on my own, I just used a guide for all the rest.

I loved the first part and I hated the second. But since the first part is supposed to be the base game, I definitely recommend it.

P. S.: Thanks for the Ukrainian localization!

This is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ridiculous. I play on D. O. and I just died in Cenote because Lara for some reason refused to use her climbing axes on a climbable wall. And now I have to replay the whole thing again.

As much as I loved The Rise of the Tomb Raider, this game is a huge downgrade, an utter disappointment. Even the good puzzles are riddled with poor design choices and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ climbing mechanics. Like, the Trial of an Eagle (i think) was a really good puzzle, but I didn't even know how to start it, because the designers decided to make normally unclimbable things suddenly climbable, just without letting the players know.

I had quite a lot of deaths because of dark places where the flashlight didn't turn on for some reason, and you just get killed or fall to your death because you don't see ♥♥♥♥.

Most of the skill tree upgrades feel useless, because you have almost nowhere to use them. You have nowhere to practice your upgrades or your guns, because there's so few places to actually fight. no respawning of enemies. Even on the hardest difficulty, where the resources are supposed to be scarce, you have actually lots and have to sell them, because you have nowhere to use them.

Nevertheless, there are some good aspects to it, like some puzzles are pretty good, and some side quests are interesting too. The scenery didn't impress me, personally, but it's quite good nonetheless. All in all, it's playable, even enjoyable to an extent, but a very mediocre game. I'd give it 5/10 at most.

Trial of the Fools.
All in all, way too annoying.

This is the worst AC game I've ever played so far. And here are the reasons I so deeply dislike it for:

1. Horrible combat system. Imho, it's even worse than the one in Witcher 3. The counter is unreliable, the dodge is ♥♥♥♥ when you fight several people, especially including archers and bomb throwers. And you fight several people at once for most of the time.
2. Most of the time (I played on nightmare) you cannot assassinate the same level people, even with the appropriate gear and perks [EDIT: until you're in late game with assassin + crit build]. And you're always against the same or higher level people due to the upscaling. At times the only way you can assasinate some random thugs is by using the critical assassination. Which requires adrenaline, which requires you to do open fights to gain it. Which, in turn, makes you wonder - is this really an Assassin's Creed game?
3. The first conquest battle I fought was for Sparta. And it looked like I marked the athenians I want to fight, so the spartans stopped to fight them and simply walked away. And here I was, fighting up to 4-5 athenians at once, while the Spartan cheerleaders close nearby were watching and apparently placing bets on whether I'll survive it or not.
4. In an ongoing war you apparently may choose a side, except... you have to fight them both. If you're a completionist, you need to kill your preferred side and weaken your preferred state just to complete the fort, because that's the only way to clear it.
5. Absolutely horrific sound design and disgusting voice acting. Plus, at times you can hear a warrior talking in male voice, but when you start hitting him, he shouts in a woman's voice, literally. Women warriors shouting while getting hit is so tryhard acting... Also, what are those ♥♥♥♥♥♥ fake accents for? At first I thought they were real, but no, they were all fake. And unjustified.
6. You have to fight everyone. If it happens in a city, you'll probably end up fighting Spartan soldiers, Athenian soldiers, mercenaries, random villagers and even a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chicken, which takes like 2-3 hits to kill (well, I suppose, the chicken must be an experienced fighter)
7. The mercenaries always find you, no matter where you are. Makes you wonder - do I have a GPS tracker on me?
8. The same level people, especially captains, may kill you in a single combo which you cannot escape once they land the first blow. While your own hits, especially if you're going for assasin's damage, deal damage equal to only a tiny fraction of their health bar.
9. There was a camp on a high hill with stupidly strong enemies same level as me. I used to throw one of the ledge, get spotted, and escape by jumping from the stupid height down to my death. Because there is no fall death. You lose all your health, which usually starts to refill immediately, but you survive, which makes, say, a 100 m height jump a viable escape option. Later on you ulock the skill that prevents even taking fall damage whatsoever.

I enjoyed AC Origins very much. It became boring closer to the end, but at least I enjoyed it. I don't enjoy this one. And see no replayability to it, unless I want to push my way through for the achievements and miss some of them.

EDIT: so I fiddled with the difficulty (easy, then hard) and pushed it through mostly for the achievements. My final verdict — the game is stunning in terms of visuals, and has a nice "fashion souls" feel with all that armor looks. I also liked to play around with the armor stats and different builds. But otherwise the game is just horrible, it disgusts me so deeply that I even couldn't get myself to clear the Korfu DLC. I thought that it was some kind of wrap-up, like a bunch of cutscenes, but once I saw the map, I just quit the game and uninstalled it straightaway. The game is a huge, boring, repetitive grind-fest with most of it designed only to consume more and more time. And Fate of Atlantis' deeply irritating verticality only confirms that claim.

The writing of both, the main story (DLC included) and side quests is cringeworthy at best, utterly disgusting and nonsensical at worst. Barely anything in this game makes any sense. If not for the visuals and some details here and there that actually have been done well, I wouldn't give it even a single rating point. Basically this is just a huge, nice looking, time consuming money grabber with no soul and no character to it.

After close to 200 hours of gameplay, I give this game two points. 2/10

Дуже красива й атмосферна гра з глибоким сюжетом. Але дуже коротка й має надто багато недоліків/недопрацювань, щоб бути справді якісною. Моя оцінка — 6/10.

Плюси:

1. Якісна, атмосферна графіка, красиво промальовані локації. Спершу дещо дивували хмари на небі, але згодом зрозумів, що це — така фішка гри (уночі небо взагалі особливе)
   
2. Глибокий, філософський сюжет. Мені, як любителеві наукової фантастики, дуже зайшов.
   
3. Багато всілякого цікавого чтива, розкиданого як по юрті, так і за її межами.
   
4. І, звісно ж, українська мова. Після стількох ігор з англомовним ігроладом нарешті зіграти гру рідною мовою, ще й у такому якісному перекладі — це такий кайф! Переклад — справді дуже якісний (я знайшов лише кілька незначних помилок на кшталт чергування у/в та з/із/зі), якісною є теж україномовна озвучка (хоча мені не сподобалося монотонне, беземоційне озвучення головного персонажа — воно було б надзвичайно якісним у закадровому голосовому перекладі, але не в дубляжі, де треба передавати емоції)

Мінуси:

1. Погана оптимізація гри. На початку — мав проблему з курсором, який застряг (у формі стрілки) у центрі екрана, і не хотів зникати (якщо зайти в налаштування, і відразу ж вийти — тоді зникає). Потім виправилося якось саме по собі. Також на початку гра дуже сильно підвисала — майже нереально було грати, але згодом трохи впрацювалася, хоча оці підвисання так і не зникли до самого кінця. Знаю, що в декого гра йде без проблем, але мені, очевидно, так не пощастило.
   
2. Попри дуже якісну графіку, текстури підвантажуються з запізненням. Можливо, це якось пов'язано з першим пунктом.
   
3. Погана комунікація з гравцем — у тих чи інших випадках незрозуміло, що та як треба робити. Найгірше було з тим квестом зі знаками на землі (в деталі не вдаватимуся, щоб не спойлерити) — підказки ні чорта не підказували, а знаки можна було легко пропустити, через що той квест залишив дуже негативне враження. Не кажучи вже про те, що якщо десь один знак пропустив, то треба починати все спочатку (але про це я теж дізнався з форумів, а не з самої гри)
   
4. Хрінова фізика в іграх з кубиками. Особливо це проявляється в десятому (третьому за порядком проходження) павільйоні. Мені не вистачило матюків. Ще й відсутність таймера за наявності досягнення на швидкість. От невже не можна було додати простенький таймер, із можливістю вмикати/вимикати в налаштуваннях?
   
5. Попри те, що сюжет є дуже глибоким, основні його елементи (які хоча б трохи прояснюють закінчення, яке і з ними є не до кінця зрозумілим) розкидані в локаціях, де гравцеві й на думку не спаде щось шукати. Словом — у траві, абиде, під якимись деревами й кущами, які можна знайти лише або випадково, або, знову ж таки, читаючи форуми.
   
6. Ну й останнє, хоч це й не зовсім недолік, а, скоріше, невдоволення таким швидким закінченням — гра є надто короткою. Лише дві локації, лише два персонажі (крім головного), лише купка простеньких квестів.

Загальне враження — гра дуже хороша, ідея дуже хороша, дизайн, сюжет, переклад — усе на висоті, але є надто багато недопрацювань, а також гра вийшла надто короткою. Хотілося б побачити наступну гру від цієї ж студії в такому ж жанрі, але вже більшу та детальніше пропрацьовану.

When I first started this game, I thought this could be the best nfs game ever. But the more I played, the more I got disappointed with it. This game feels like a really solid basis for a "perfect" NFS game, but it also feels like instead of an equally solid building, there's only a nice looking shack built on it. I give it 3/10.

Pros:

1. Car customization. Apart from a bit poor choice of bodykit parts, it's the best I've ever seen in any of the NFS games. Both, in terms of visual customization, and the performance customization. It also has some features I've never seen at all (like exhaust sound adjustments, tire smoke or nitrous color etc.)
   
2. Graphics. Maybe it's not perfect, but it's very good, at least I didn't have any issues with it, unlike some other players.
   
3. Story. Again, it's far from being perfect, but compared to the NFS games that have no story at all, I prefer a game with a story in it.
   
4. Day and night mode. It's cool that instead of having a night-only or day-only game, you can have both those modes in the same game.
   
5. Online mode. Playing with other players, or even building your own crew from scratch, or creating a party, is really cool, and the benefits of playing with others (and even losing to them) are really nice. You'd rather want to lose a race to a real player, than to win vs AI.
   
6. Side activities and collectibles. It's fun and rewarding to do those, but if you're going for the achievements, it'll feel like a chore.

Cons:

1. Cop chases. They were the best parts about the other games I've played (like NFS Carbon, NFS Most Wanted, or NFS Rivals), and they're the worst part of this game. They were the reason I wanted to replay those games, and they are the reason I won't replay this one. Yes, after you get a car that is fast enough, they're fairly easy to deal with, but they're still extremely annoying and unfun. At times they could outrun you when you're on nitrous, they could ram you from behind when you're at 200 mph, they could spawn in front of you, not only right on your minimap, but right in your face, out of thin air, on your screen. I once stood still near another racer (was playing online), and after the racer honked at me, a cop spawned behind them and started chasing me. Now I know where the Cyberpunk 2077 developers got the idea from.
   
2. Road traffic. It is not a road traffic, it's just moving obstacles that look like cars. They were never intended to be a road traffic, they were intended to stop you, literally. You will see cars stopping in the middle of the crossing for no reason. Especially the trucks. They will suddenly slow down when you get close to them - only to disorient you. They will spawn just around the corners for no reason (you think you can see the road through the bushes and apparently see-through fences? Think again!) If you drive fast enough and have good visibility, you'll see them pop up in the distance, especially at night. It would look like they were driving with their lights off, and then they saw you and switched them on. The trucks are worse - where there was nothing, there will suddenly appear a whole truck to stop you. Considering this is an expensive AAA title with a long history behind its back, this is outright disgusting.
   
3. Servers constantly shutting down. The online mode would be great, if not for servers. I don't know why they're constantly shutting down. At times I could have a couple of hours of online until I got a message that the server is about to shut down (if you don't go to the garage, you'll lose your progress). It's especially annoying when you're trying to get your first million of REP, but it forces you to quit upon reaching heat 3, or just before reaching that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ million. Or even worse, once I joined a server that was about to shut down, while the other time I joined a server and got the message right after leaving the garage. Annoying af.
   
4. Car damage. The car damage is outright ridiculous. One hit could take 1/4 of your hp. Or you could lose 3/4 of your hp during a single race, before even encountering any cop. Also, it is inconsistent. At times you could slam a railing at 200 mph and take little to no dmg, while at other times you just slightly brush it to take 1/4 of your hp. The same goes for hitting the traffic cars and police cars. Also, if the police car rams you from behind, you take tons of damage, and if you do the same to the police car, it's you again who takes a lot of damage.
   
5. Physics. Overal physics was tolerable, but at times it just didn't "click". Especially if you drive your race car into the grass. Sometimes it feels like you've just hit some jelly obstacle that instantly lowered your speed from like 180 mph to 90 mph (and by "instantly" I mean exactly that). I experienced this also on that circle race track after just brushing the railing that surrounds it. Also, at times some high speed cars simply refuse to turn. Idk what causes this, and why it does work this way. Live tuning didn't help, only slightly modifying your car towards drift handling (through drift suspension or tires) seems to mitigate the issue, but doing this lowers some other specs of the car. Also, I don't understand why driving a car at high speed downhill and going into the grass or dirt slows the car down so drastically. How about inertia? But I guess it's just a cheap way to make the off-road car customization more feasible.
   
6. Drift. Drift is one of the best parts about NFS games, and I feel really disappointed when there's no drift in a game. But here it was implemented really badly. Not only it is hard to pick a right car and customize it properly (all-drift customization doesn't really work towards achieving good drift physics), but also, most of the time, the game rewards brainless drifting outside of the actual track, because there's too little benefits of staying on the track, while if you keep drifting on the grass outside of it, it extends your drift time, drift distance, and, accordingly, drift multiplier and score. Then, there are optional tracks (the ones scattered around the map) which will force you to go to the garage to change your car's specs, because what works for one track, doesn't work for the other.
   
7. Artificial difficulty. Most of the above is about artificial difficulty. A poor game design, if put simply. Once I experienced a funny thing - a truck smashed into another traffic car on a crossing and stopped just to provide an obstacle for me. It looked so weird - as if the game was so desperate about stopping my car, that it forced the AI cars to crash into each other just to stop me.
   
8. Learning curve. Well, it's basically non-existant. There's only a grind of REP and BANK, nothing more. Once I realized how the game works, I started to grind at night, until I got enough REP to unlock a Mercedes-AMG car (later - Pagani hypercar). then I started to grind the daytime races to get enough BANK to buy the car I wanted. And that's basically it - cannot win a race? Start grinding, get a better car and win! Little to no skill is needed!
   
9. Cluttered interface and map. Those messages in the center of the screen, obscuring the road... They ♥♥♥♥♥♥ me up so many times. Like the message "crashed a cop" could crash me. Or the message "rhino incoming" while I was driving uphill, forced me to crush into that rhino BECAUSE i DIDN'T SEE IT BEHIND THAT FREAKING MESSAGE! And the map is cluttered and takes so slow to navigate and pick the relevant target. The Icons could be smaller, and I wouldn't mind being able to use the mouse, or at least adjust the speed of the map cursor.
   
10. Soundtrack. The worst soundtrack I've ever heard. This is the only NFS game I disabled the music for. (And there're like 65 songs - I honestly thought there're like 10-15 on repeat)

Гра дуже незвичайна, не схожа ні на що інше. Дуже заплутана, дуже незрозуміла, але оця заплутаність та незрозумілість є якраз фішкою гри, а не її недоліком. Тим більше, що гравець разом із головною героїнею (яка теж нічого не розуміє) повільно, із розвитком сюжету, висновує з цього заплутаного клубка інформації нитки логіки, із яких ближче до завершення вдається зіткати хай і нечітку, але все ж більш-менш зрозумілу загальну картину.

Сюжет, як і весь ігролад, базується на обігруванні страхів, вірувань, забобонів та архетипічних уявлень, що формувалися в людства протягом усієї його історії. І поряд із усією цією майже-магією, існує цілком собі повноцінна наука з її науковим методом, яка, утім, практично не дає відповідей на запитання, а, радше, вчиться ставити їх правильно, а також робити обґрунтовані припущення.