Recent reviews by MicVilly

I am a huge Dragon Age fan and have not found any other game to capture me like that series did....until now.

BG3 is easily the best RPG game I have ever played in my entire life. Act 1 alone took me over 60 hours to complete. 60 hours!!! That's bigger than most games in their entirety,

The writing in this game is pared with PERFECT motion capture for facial expressions and the VAs did the best acting job that I have ever experienced. Especially when it comes to the relationships that you can have with your companions. I started off with Lae-Zel but left to be with Karlach and those conversations, facial expressions and voice acting lines were so realistic; that it actually felt like a real life break up that I legitimately had. And the fact that Larian even wrote to acknowledge this in game relationship even in the endgame companion reunion; absolutely blew my mind. Lae-Zel looks and speaks to my character like a former lover and shows that she still loves my character and it again; made me feel so real. Not a single other game has evoked such real emotions and resemblances to actual real life interactions like this.

Now picture every in game interaction on this same scale. That's what BG3 is. This entire game is crafted to perfection; right down to the side quests that you think mean nothing, but are actually a huge plot point later on. Everything you do matters and the choices in this game ACTUALLY MATTER. The whole game can drastically change based on your decisions; which again, is not something you really see in other games.

The reason I have 191 hours in my first play through is because I did everything that I could to experience this game in its entirety and I loved every second of it.

1000/10 score, and definite contender for best game of ALL TIME.

I hope other game studios learn from this experience and put this kind of effort into their games. The value here is just insane.

191 hours / $79.99 = $2.39 per hour. This game, at full price, for all its content is an absolute STEAL; and this is just the surface, the game is completely different in at least 2 or 3 other ways. So really you are getting even more, for pennies on the dollar. And I don't even like turn based games or isometric views; but this game makes none of that matter. I can walk around in over the shoulder view and the turn based combat works so perfectly, that everything just makes sense.

After I completed my first play through I felt so lost because this took 4 months of my life to complete. This is rivalling my time with Elden Ring; and that is a huge accomplishment for Larian.

Do you know fear? Have you felt despair? Can you see the truth within the darkness?

Take up the lamp crusader and decide if you will purge the land in Orius' light, reforge it in Adyr's flames; or surrender it to the Putrid Mother.

Nothing will prepare you for this journey. You must embrace death and let it guide you forward, for the truth lies within the umbral eyes.

Throughout your quest, I urge you to consider; who is the lord of the fallen? Who is the fallen? What is right and what is wrong? Who is lying and who is telling the truth? What is good and what is evil? What lies within your heart and what does fate have in store for you?

This game is quite difficult. I mean its straight up insane at some parts. Most souls games have a slow cadence to them, but this is akin to Bloodborne levels of aggression. Things are fast, very fast; and you are on the clock, almost all the time and may Orius protect you if you run out of time. They will find you, and they can not be stopped.

Mobs after mobs, after mobs, with more mobs, with mobs, and then once you are done with that; there are more mobs. This game will punish you for taking your time. You need to be quick, and the dodge function is excellent; even with heavy armor, it will be your life line. Explore yes, but take too long and you will find yourself learning the true meaning of hell.

This is infinitely better than the original game and I love how true it is to the souls-like genre.

Is it incredibly difficult? Yes, but that's the genre its based on. The creators did a phenomenal job here and I honestly have not been this happy since Elden Ring.

The plot twist I received after the ending I got also made me re-evaluate all my choices; so it made me appreciate this journey even more.

Some of my favourite highlights:

1) Got shoved off cliffs multiple times; even though I checked first to ensure that would not happen. So annoying but also funny AF.

2) Struggling with a boss, only to defeat it and see "Sinner Purged"....which means this was not a boss, its a regular enemy. So guess what?, you will 100% see this enemy again and it will still hit like an absolute truck; oh and bonus, it will be present with MOBS. So good luck, enjoy your victory; because the next time you see this enemy it will be quite the time for you (the bane of my existence, former boss with mobs killed me to umbral...only to now see another former boss join the fight...Oh and with more MOBS).

Pro Tip:

1) Poison + Bleed build + Radiant weapon cast = Love.

2) Range builds do VERY well.

If you like dodging behind enemies and then still getting hit by a frontal attack, then this is the game for you!

Welcome to the city of Krat where you are either a perfect parry God or you are dead. There is no in between.

Are you a souls veteran like myself? Do you pride yourself on thinking you know everything souls related? Well I got news for you my brothers and sisters; you know nothing. This game will break you down and build you back up, into the true warrior that you were meant to be.

You are P, and you are about to embark into a world steeped in lore and mystery. Should you lie? Should you tell the truth? Who is your Papi and why does this girl have blue hair? All of these questions will be answered, assuming you don't have a stroke from trying to read what the bosses are saying to you; as they beat your freaking @$$.

The world building and story progression here is fantastic and I loved every second of it. The bosses and enemies evolved perfectly and I was genuinely surprised by how well crafted this game was. You will laugh, you will cry and you will revel in your own personal growth as you go from rags to riches in this tale.

I started out as absolute dog sh!t and ended as a white haired, jet black alchemist, wielding the acid legion and critical trident; while flaunting my dominion as the parry God.

Try Lies of P out today and you too can become the legend that staggers bosses and then falcon punches them in the face.

A pleasant surprise!

I didn't think wand combat with parry and dodge rolls would work, but it does! It works very well and the effects and combos are efficient and beautiful.

This game really feels like a movie, you go to class, learn spells, make friends and uncover whats going on with the main plot. Its the same pacing as the Harry Potter movies and really adds to the nostalgia.

The main plot starts slow but really picks up in the back half once you learned all the spells and the pay off was amazing. However, the main plot fails in comparison to the side stories for your friends. Namely Sebastian's quests......Holy, that was epic, frightful and amazing. I felt way more engaged in my friends quests, than I did with the main plot, but overall, I liked both. I would 1000% recommend doing the friend quests prior to completing the main campaign. The writing for them is exceptionally good and fits perfectly with the narrative.

My only negative was that there is no REAL choice in this game. I learned all 3 unforgivable curses, and used them in combat and no one really cared and it also did not factor into the ending at all. There is also no choice in siding with the goblins or not. Its just, you seal up the power or take it for yourself and that's it, that's what defines good vs bad; but the cutscenes for both is barely any different. And if you are at least level 34 when completing the game, then you can get the true ending by talking to Weasley and then attending the grand hall to see a nice wholesome wrap-up to the story - even if you picked to take the power and be evil.....NO ONE CARES! I would have liked to see more world changing for being evil and definitely some reaction from the teachers or something; but other than that, this game was super fun and felt wonderful.

8/10 Story
- Very cool, slow build, no real variance in ending choices or impact.

20/10 Side stories
-Excellent character writing and progression, big impact (Sebastian's choices), you have some choice in what happens for 1 of them.

10/10 Combat
-Fluid, great combo system, amazing visuals, user friendly, FUN, and Avada Kadabra ACTUALLY 1 shots EVERYTHING. Its not an end game, unforgivable OP curse for nothing. If you face a boss enemy, it will 1 shot it, true to its name/lore and reputation. Some people may not like that, but I think its quite fitting. If you don't like it, don't use that spell. However if you feel like playing God, curse every enemy on the field, then use AK on them and (if you upgraded the spell) watch every single enemy disintegrate into oblivion and then revel in your unlimited power.
- You get combat PLANTS! Which sounds ridiculous, but holy hell they are GOOD! Don't sleep on them. Even without learning the spells, if you uses potion buffs and combat plants, you are easily OP within seconds.
- There are many ways to play and anyone can mix and match and have a great time.
-You can stealth too if you wish.

10000000/10 Beast Vivariums
- You can rescue and breed beasts and groom and/or play with them. I didn't think I would care about this but when i saw the baby Fwooper waddle running around, I melted. Absolutely melted. That is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Its also nice that the animals give you feathers/hair to be used to upgrade your gear, so its worth seeing and spending time with them.

10/10 Room customization
- I thoroughly enjoyed changing every single aspect of my Room of Requirement to be exactly what i wanted it to be. You can customize everything! The walls, floors, ceiling, windows, and every single item in that room. Different styles and colours and many many many unlockable options to make that space your own. You can even change the lighting and ambience. I had a gothic mixed with greek architecture, all black, but with moonlight ambience and lighting to make my room have a blue reflection to it - it really suited my dark lord ravenclaw theme.

7/10 World building/Impact from choices
- Its a nice and beautiful environment, but does not change from your play style at all.

8/10 Mount options
- Broom flight actually feels realistic and janky and it doesn't feel bad at all. You need to master the controls to be pro at it, which is a nice touch of realism for me. Beast mounts are okay but broom is definitely the better way to go for efficiency.

10/10 Character customization is very diverse
- Despite the backlash, you can absolutely look and sound like anything you want. If you want to appear straight, gay, bi, or trans, you absolutely can do that. It might not be perfect, but its close enough to make most people feel like they can personalize their character to match what they want. NOTE: There is a very obvious and clearly trans side character and when doing their quests; you will discover that 1 of the teachers is lesbian and that this character helped them accept themselves and embrace who they are. No matter how you feel about JK Rowling, this game studio did their own thing and made sure every player can relate and feel represented within this game. When you talk to some merchants, you can also see and hear this as well. Its a diverse and beautiful world that we live in and this game tries to match that as well.

10/10 Level progression.
- You only level up by LEARNING, which I thought I was going to hate, but i didn't. Just cast Revelio every 5 seconds and collect all the field guide pages that you can and you will level up super fast. Its not about grinding enemies, its about exploration. There are combat challenges, but that's more for unlocking cosmetics than leveling up. To increase your character level, you fill up your field guide and do quests - which in my opinion, feels logical for this type of setting. You're a student Harry, go to class and do your homework!

Overall i had a wonderful time. I farmed plants, made potions in bulk, raised animals and discovered all sorts of wonders during my time at Hogwarts. This is a new age of magic and sorcery and I hope there are more games to come!

Played this immediately after completing the first game...phenomenal experience!

This game is significantly more developed when compared to the first game. The first game, to me, is just a platformer but this game fully embraces the metroidvania style and has side quests and optional abilities and power ups that really make you have different ways of using combat to progress the story.

The visuals here are CRAZY good, way more than the first game. The use of 3D elements to make this 2D platformer experience truly dynamic, is some of the best I have ever seen.

I love the addition of boss fights as well and they feel nice. They are not terribly difficult but they are visually stunning and fun to complete as you frantically run around the area.

100/10 Visuals

10/10 Story Telling

10/10 Environment and World Building

9/10 Controls - takes some getting used to, but still easy enough to platform through the levels.

9/10 Combat, only because it wasn't particularly challenging.

Overall, this was an incredible experience and I loved every second of it.

WOW what an amazing ride. I did't know what to expect from this game but holy crap this was GREAT!

Highlights:

1) Exceptionally well done visuals, with a 3D feel. This is a 2D platformer but the environment has things happening in the foreground, middle ground and background - creating a dynamic and immersive experience.

2) Beautiful design and FX creating a vivid and colourful experience from start to finish.

3) Masterful soundtrack that you could even listen to off game to just relax or feel good.

4) Very user friendly controls.

5) Relevant skills that you unlock to greatly diversify your platforming experience. Towards the end game, the platforming is exceptionally intense - making great use of your acquired skills; which in turn makes for a really satisfying experience, once you succeed.

6) Great usage of secrets and hidden power ups, in combination with stats on the pause screen; to encourage you to explore and uncover all this game has to offer.

7) Perfect length - I completed this game, 100%, in 13 hours. I'm only missing some combat trophies, but I explored everything and acquired all items, skills, and power ups.

8) Excellent storytelling - This game uses some cut-scenes, but mostly uses in game text/narration as you progress, to tell you the lore and plot. These transitions were so smooth and packed with emotion that I didn't expect at all. The story also unfolded in a way that I didn't anticipate and I found it to be an awesome experience.

Important Note: The platforming gets very difficult as you progress. I died over 300 times in my 13 hours finishing this game. If you do not like platforming, then do not buy this game as it will drive you mad. If you are okay with a challenge and welcome it, then this game will blow you away; and you will feel great satisfaction in completing it.

I have nothing negative to say about this game at all and I am really looking forward to now playing the sequel.

Lots of potential, just not executed as good as it could have been. HOWEVER - still a good story and amazing graphics. The gameplay is just straight up boring though. It never feels right unfortunately.

Builds:

Dexterity/Agility - Nightwing - Good balance and combat variety.

Stealth/Elemental - Robin - Takedown master and quick elemental build up.

All rounder/Hacker - Batgirl - Can hack cameras and can solo anyone.

Range/Grappler - Red Hood - Very gun centered but can grapple nearly anyone.

The Good:

1) Story

2) Graphics

3) Progression

4) Environment

5) Level design

6) Character Customization

7) Character interactions/development

9) Voice Acting and facial animations.

The Bad:

1) Combat feels slow, no matter who i use - but is especially bad with Jason Todd, Red Hood.

2) Boss battles look so good but feel so boring to be apart of. Especially when you can barely get any rapid mele hits in. You basically just run around shooting them and using your ultimate or ranged ability. Fighting them head on gets you grabbed and murdered very quickly - even when over levelled; and the dodge button is not super reliable either. These fights are missing the acrobatics that the other batman games had. Being able to jump over enemies and or use the grapple line, would help alleviate this immersion break.

3) Only 3 side boss battles compared to the wide variety of bosses in other batman games.

4) Dodging is so slow. Especially with Jason. This kind of combat should be more fluid and fast, but everything feels so heavy and slow. It ruins immersion; especially when all these characters are supposed to be very athletic and acrobatic.

5) No counter unless you get a perfect dodge. Its not hard to do, but since the dodge doesn't feel smooth, the counter isn't satisfying. It also isn't guaranteed, as you can hit a different enemy, even though you perfect dodged already.

6) Lack of bat tools/gadgets to use in combat, which is a huge wasted opportunity in my opinion. Each character has their own tools, but when you are in combat, they aren't available to use - for example the grapple line to pull weapons away or rush towards the enemies. Or using Robins teleport tech, or Jason's Lazarus pit jumps. None of these are used in combat, and are only used outside when travelling around.

7) The motorcycle looks fast but it isn't actually going fast at all and is even slow in the cutscenes, which looks off and breaks immersion.

8) The various character mobility options are also slow and/or annoying to use. Batgirl has the regular cape glide that everyone is used to, but the other 3 have slow or annoying to control mobility options that don't make traversal fun or easy to do.

9) If you want to see each characters cutscenes/development, you need to switch to them each time and then go to the spot to activate their cutscene. So to get 1 cutscene for all characters, you need to switch characters 3 times. Which gets very tedious.

10) The repetition of the premeditated crimes gets old pretty fast.

11) You need to unlock each characters special moves by going out into the city to fight various enemies. So you have to do the same challenges 4 times to have each character on the same combat level. What is the point of having the main level the same no matter who you play as - if I still have to go and waste time grinding, just to unlock each character's moves anyway? Its just added repetition that gets old fast.

12) I finished the game at level 30 and i 2 HIT killed the final boss in all of its phases......2 hits....I just used the piercing momentum attack with Nightwing and the fight was over in less than 3 minutes. What a let down....every boss fight in this game looks so cool but is so boring to play through.

Verdict:

Buy it on sale. I really like the story, graphics, voice acting and character interactions - but the gameplay is seriously lacking. I love all these characters and seeing the emotions they go through, but unfortunately playing through their stories is so aggravatingly sluggish; that it is hard to be as immersed as I was with the other batman games. I know this isn't an Arkham game, but its hard not to compare any future batman games to the success of the Arkham series. The combat should be number 1 and everything should be built around that, since the whole game is combat centered. I finished this game and felt so empty, and I just wish the combat was more fluid and enjoyable.

A welcome addition to the souls-like genre.

This has all the things that you love about souls-like games:
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PROS:

1) Punishing and challenging combat.
2) A wide variety of weapons and armors.
3) Character creator/customization.
4) Useful items to help your combat play style.
5) Extensive level design, with creative shortcuts to make backtracking easier.
6) Fully voiced characters.
7) Fully rendered, next gen, environments and gear.
8) Frequent and efficient auto save to protect your progress at all times.

Bonus:
- You can pause the game, unlike most souls-like games.
- To make up for the lack of a block/counter button, the abilities that you get do a large amount of status damage and come in a variety of elements. This alleviated the need for you to swap weapons based on element. You can just use the ability and then compile your physical damage on to it.

CONS:

1) Facial animation is still dated, but that's a common issue with Spyder's games. This is still an improvement for them.
2) When I paused the game and my PC went to sleep, it crashed the game. The auto save is really good though, so there were no issues.
3) There is a glitch where I have to pick things up multiple times for the item to disappear off the floor.
4) Another glitch where I cut a hanging item bag and the item disappears before it touches the ground and I get nothing.
5) There is no block/counter button unless its your weapons special ability. If its not, you can't counter or block and just have to dodge. This makes sense later on though as you unlock abilities.
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There is a new theme that i actually quite enjoy here; which is that each mini boss becomes a regular enemy as you progress through the story. I find this really rewarding as you notice how much stronger you have become when you face these enemies again on your travels.

The first main story boss I thought was a little easy but the second story boss was WAY MORE INTENSE; and same with the enemy layouts and attack patterns as well. So similar to other souls-like games, how you level yourself up is super important. There is no respec here so if you screw up, you have to grind to level yourself up correctly or restart your play through. I would recommend looking up what build you want and then trying each out in the beginning area. You can buy the other class weapons (In-game currency - souls/Anima) for cheap and just test out the move sets to see what works for you, before deciding on sticking to 2 that you like.

Also keeping watch for elemental advantages is SUPER IMPORTANT here. If an enemy is using frost. You can fight them normally sure; but if you use Fire instead, you will have a significantly easier time. However story bosses have very high resistances; so this method does not apply to them. For that, you need to dodge and/or counter them. When you start the game you are weak to everything so you definitely need to watch out for status effects (Afflictions).

Also don't sell your weapons and armor. Different areas require different elemental advantages and if you just use the same weapon all the time, you will make the game very difficult. Especially once the new upgraded enemies show up. They are enhanced versions of the regular enemies and they will destroy you super fast if you just try to use physical damage.

I would give this game a solid 8/10.

Do not buy this game at full price.

The default settings are not optimized at all and look grainy/fuzzy and the camera settings are very hard on the eyes. After about an hour of researching how to fix the camera settings (google some presets and turn off VSync), I had to then load the game through my nVidia experience app to optimize the graphics settings. Finally the game is playable and looks gorgeous.....but its empty.

The whole city is empty with very few enemies around and the ones you do find are so easy to defeat. The combat is extremely basic and is the same for the entire game. I only played 9 hours and I have all the combat abilities unlocked and its the same one shot firing system that's very lacklustre and uninspiring.

You also get a bow.....that doesnt do much or even do serious damage at all - and when you actually need it later on, its useless. You just have to stealth kill your way out, which isn't a play style that is super fun in this game.

Its not even worth it to run around town fighting the few enemies that are there because the real leveling in this game is gliding across rooftops to absorb spirits and then using the phone to turn them into EXP. I leveled up to fast like this and unfortunately that's the whole game. Basic and boring combat, in a mostly empty city and leveling through rooftop gliding to absorb spirits - with a hint of story in there too.

I'm sure the story is good, but I just cant bring myself to finish this when I'm running around by myself just doing random stuff without any sense of real urgency or purpose.

And the "boss" fights.......What a huge let down. I was so excited to see this menacing enemy about to cleave me in two; only to find out that I use the same basic combat to take them down exactly the same way as every other enemy in the game. The fight ended so quickly and ruined the great introduction and promise that it had.

The trailers for this game look so good, and it has so much potential; but unfortunately it falls flat in every area that matters. I paid $80 but this content isn't worth anything over $20.

I never expected Team17 to make a souls-like game, but this is pretty good. Its modelled after everyone's favourite place in the souls universe - blightown - and is just as punishing too! The combat is quick and chaotic like bloodborne and will definitely punish you if you are slow and cautious. You need to press on the attack and combos, or the enemies will regenerate their health. This is especially important for mini boss and boss fights. Learn the moves, but caution does not win here. Be too slow and the bosses will use long range, ultra punishing moves on you; that will make you want to pull your hair out......ah, what is this sensation I feel? A true soulsborne experience. Honestly, I'm having a blast. The more you get into the combat and mastering the different combos you can do, the more powerful you feel....and every time you get too cocky, the game will find a way to make you regret that with fun surprises around every corner! A really nice edition to the souls-like genre and I'm always happy to try these games out. The only negative so far is that the right stick camera is janky. I had to play around with the settings to smooth it out and now its okay. Aside from that, I have nothing negative to share. I played through till the first boss so far and that was a tough fight. If they counter you, it interrupts you, but if you counter them, they still hit you. And if you attack during their attack, they will still hit you.....my advice, don't try to interrupt them. There are very few key telegraphed counter times, but most are not worth it. Dodge roll and charge in.