Recommended – Page 15

Happy about: Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition

26/11/2018 28/06/2019

Larian Studios have been doing Divinity series for 16 years now and if anything, I cannot call any of their games “boring”. Divine Divinity was an attempt to mix the depth of Ultima series with simplistic aRPG gameplay of Diablo, Beyond decided to add dual character control into that mix, Divinity II allowed you to read NPCs minds and turn into a dragon at almost any point in the open map and Dragon Commander was a bizarre mix of genres where you played as a dragon with a jetpack. When going with crowdfunding for Original Sin, they decided to switch from action RPGs to turn based RPGs and focus on cooperative gameplay, half-jokingly saying that the game was designed to be played specifically by people in a romantic relationship.

But despite all of these creative and fun ideas, every single game they’ve made felt clunky, not particularly good at anything it tried to be and somewhat half-baked. I did enjoy my time with Divine and Divinity 2 back in the day, but none of the other games, including Original Sin, could get me interested for longer than a few hours, either because they were boring, or plot was terrible, or something else, or all of the above. So, I’m glad, that it wasn’t the case for Original Sin 2, when I’ve recently completed it in the updated Definitive Edition package.

Thoughts on: Old Man’s Journey and Subsurface Circular

18/11/2018 28/06/2019

Another good bundle, another chance that some of the games in it are complete unknowns to you, but seem to have good reviews. In this case, Subsurface Circular most certainly turned out to be a fantastic title and from a developer, previous projects of whom I loved. Weird how I’ve missed their newer projects. As for the Old Man’s Journey… Well, not every unknown is going to turn out a pleasant surprise.

Happy about: Ys: Memories of Celceta

29/08/2018 28/06/2019

There, it finally happened. Now every main Ys game (apart from the still not remade V) is available on PC for your enjoyment. This latest release is a new canon re-imagining of the fourth entry in the main series, that previously was comprised of two similar, but different games telling a similar story. Oh, the events of the game are also set as a chronological second adventure and happen before the third game (Oath in Felghana) but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the game is fun. Even if not the best in the series.

Happy about: Devil May Cry HD Collection and 4: Special Edition

22/08/2018 28/06/2019

I remember learning about Devil May Cry back when I only had a PS1 of my own and waiting for the next Resident Evil. Code Veronica X on PS2 was originally released with the demo disc of DMC and I’ve seen many a fan of RE later say that that demo disc was the best thing about their purchase. Originally planned as the next entry in Resident Evil franchise (you can even see Umbrella logo in some of the old concept art) and highly influenced by Onimusha and Hideki Kamiya’s love for over the top stylish action concepts, this hack and slash action title created something of a genre of it’s own, sometimes called “stylish action” or “character action”. And while it evolved so much with fans eagerly awaiting whatever next game PlatinumGames (comprised of a lot of old Capcom employees who worked on DMC) are going to release, it’s interesting to go to the beginning and see how the genre defining franchise evolved.

Happy about: Sniper Elite 4 (and few words on 3)

17/08/2018 06/06/2024

Sniper Elite series has always been a weird beast. On one hand, it’s a very unique approach to stealth action, where you are trying to stealth kill enemies using long range and traps, rather than go in close range – which is very unusual for the genre. Moreover, it also employs highly customizable difficulty scale to incorporate it’s attempt at simulating real ballistics, ranging from super simple shooting, to thinking about distance, bullet drop, and even wind. On the other, the games have always being clearly middle budget, looking and feeling “good enough”, but never even close to what you would expect from a modern full price AAA release. That is, until Sniper Elite 4.

Thoughts on: Batman: The Telltale Series and The Enemy Within

10/08/2018 28/06/2019

With Telltale Games making so many games with so many different franchises, including the goddamn Minecraft, I shouldn’t have been surprised about the existence of Batman: The Telltale Series. But I was. Maybe it was due to the Batman: Arkham series which managed to be not just incredibly fun action adventure titles, but also tell fun interesting stories, but it was hard for me to imagine a purely story and dialogue driven game about Batman being good. Maybe I should let my imagination be less skeptical at times.

Happy about: Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth

06/07/2018 28/06/2019

Despite playing and reviewing adventure games from the German development studio Daedalic Entertainment for quite a few years now, I’ve been mostly acquainted with their comedic titles. So a story driven point and click adventure game based on a historical novel wasn’t something I expected much from. Especially since I’ve not read, or even heard of, the said novel or the seemingly well received TV miniseries based on it before playing the game. Well, I was very pleasantly surprised.

Happy about: Tyranny (with DLCs)

03/06/2018 28/06/2019

Obsidian Entertainment are known for making amazing story-driven RPG games and rarely disappointing. It’s been just 3 years since their amazingly successful Kickstarter project Pillars of Eternity was released and rather unexpectedly, while the expansions for the game have been in development and sequel was mentioned as being in pre-production, a completely new game was announced. Though, the reasons for why Tyranny came “out of nowhere” are rather simple – the concept for a game like this was developed in the studio since mid-00s and the finished product was just one of many iterations of the idea, finally given life. Yet, this seemingly quick development cycle of the finished game left a mark.

Few words on: Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

09/04/2018 28/06/2019

What I love most is when a genre is revived by people who really truly understand it. The developers of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun clearly understood why the classic tactics stealth games like Commandos worked. It has always been a very niche small genre, seemingly influenced by both real time tactics classics like Myth series and by the stealth titles like Metal Gear, and it hasn’t seen any truly worthy successors for years. Even later Commandos games and the similar Desperados games usually never got the same love and praise the original titles did and some (citation needed) might even claim those games to “not get it” as well. But Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun? Now this game gets it. And I suck at it pretty badly, as expected.

Couple of thoughts on: Path of Exile (as a solo game)

02/04/2018 28/06/2019

Path of Exile, a free 2 play action RPG game, has been released back in 2013. Well, the first part of it was. You see, it’s an always-online game, fully free to play with all microtransactions being essentially solely cosmetic, that had several rather big changes since that 2013 release. For example, back then it had 3 story Acts. Now it has 10 (and that’s supposed to be the end of the main story). It also has “leagues” – special events, that require a newly created character that last a finite amount of time and do not repeat. Yet, at it’s core, it’s still a “Diablo-like game” that can be enjoyed very much singleplayer. As long as you are connected to the internet, that is.

I also haven’t finished it, but played 15 hours of it and wanted to share my thoughts on it.