Review Requests thread

[Mischief Maker]

Professional game reviewers are useless and youtubers are useless and annoying. So this is a spot for people considering a game purchase to ask a crowd that at least has some level of skill at games if it's worth the purchase. Answers don't have to be massive articles, though they're certainly appreciated.

I'll start. Enter the Gungeon just got its final update and it's on sale this week. Is it any good?

[kitten]

didn't enjoy enter the gungeon. it feels as much of a delayed slot machine as the binding of isaac but with a much more turgid pacing and less moment-to-moment thrill. it's very tedious and i feel like the overtly detailed pixel art, excessive lighting effects, and poor camera that likes to swing around and makes you lose track of your character reduces any difficulty spikes it has into largely being accidental. my experience was playing it for an hour with almost no excitement whatsoever and then getting wiped by a boss who would push me to the edge of the camera screen and make me lose track of my pixel blob in the visual mess. i repeated the process a couple of times before just saying "fuck it."

i'm somewhat notably very hard on games like these, though, so take that with a grain of salt! i would still place it well below dead cells in terms of action/roguelike combination, and you already know i wasn't terribly positive about that one. it has a similar level of way-too-fucking-many cross-play unlocks.

[Mischief Maker]

You just saved me $7.50! Thanks!

I thought the gameplay looked iffy in footage, but so many people said this was the second coming. I kinda have the same feeling about Crosscode.

[MX7]

OK my turn! Really enamoured by the concept of the Kiseki games but every review simply states 'the plot is really deep but it's very wordy lol'. I have no intrinsic issue with wordinness, and I play a lot of of visual novels. One million word scripts are a good thing. Trails of Cold Steel has just been released for PS4. From the few screenshot I've seen it looks fairly bland in terms of mise en scene, but but if the narrative is genuinely intriguing I don't really mind. I got three hours in to Lacrimosa of Dana before giving up, not through revulsion or fatigue but basically through wanting to spend my time playing something more worthy. Should I try Trails of Cold Steel?

[Marc]

didn't enjoy enter the gungeon. it feels as much of a delayed slot machine as the binding of isaac but with a much more turgid pacing and less moment-to-moment thrill. it's very tedious and i feel like the overtly detailed pixel art, excessive lighting effects, and poor camera that likes to swing around and makes you lose track of your character reduces any difficulty spikes it has into largely being accidental. my experience was playing it for an hour with almost no excitement whatsoever and then getting wiped by a boss who would push me to the edge of the camera screen and make me lose track of my pixel blob in the visual mess. i repeated the process a couple of times before just saying "fuck it."

i'm somewhat notably very hard on games like these, though, so take that with a grain of salt! i would still place it well below dead cells in terms of action/roguelike combination, and you already know i wasn't terribly positive about that one. it has a similar level of way-too-fucking-many cross-play unlocks.

Absolutely hit the nail on the head there. It's a game I've tried to enjoy several times now, but it never comes together properly for the reasons above. Also, another bugbear for me is that the shooting also lacks any sort of punch or impact whatsoever. It's also excessively stingy with loot drops, to the point where I don't think I've seen more than a quarter of the guns on offer.

[blackoak]

Just chiming in to agree about hating Enter the Gungeon. "turgid" is appropriate. if ever a game warranted reviving the "hipster" epithet, it is this one

[BulletMagnet]

Should I try Trails of Cold Steel?

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I ended up quitting Cold Steel, though I did get quite a ways in; there is a lot of story/dialogue, though I found most of the characters fairly cliched, and the inherent "talk to every single person again every time the story progresses for fear of missing something" flow wore on me. Combat was fine, though the game has a nasty habit of letting you cruise for awhile and suddenly throwing a boss at you which completely overwhelms you with status ailments and basically forces you to shuffle your accessories and try again; the last straw was a late-game one of those that pops up in an area you're not allowed to leave, so if you don't already have equipment tailored to that ailment you're completely screwed. The game is solid in a lot of areas, but those things were enough to put me off the series.

This is quickly becoming the "contrary opinions" thread, it seems.

[MX7]

Cheers for that BM. Maybe I'll wait til it's on sale.

[Steamflogger Boss]

I liked Trails of Cold Steel but the issues BM mentioned are pretty much all present. I don't remember the boss ailment thing BUT it's been years and the lots of miss-ables aspect already had me double checking gamefaqs to make sure I didn't miss anything as I wanted to 100% it on a single playthrough. It's definitely no Octopath in terms of the gameplay where you can optimize your party for anything. I would definitely put Cold Steel above Ys VIII fwiw. To your main asking point, I remember myself skipping some dialogue by the end of it. You can tell they cared a lot about building this world but the characters were somewhat bland to me.

[Mischief Maker]

Is Trails in the Sky better than Cold Steel?

I mean, aside from the fact that it's literally TitS!

[Vexorg]

I might give Enter the Gungeon another try on Switch, but when I tried to play it on PC the mechanics just felt clunky, and I felt like I was fighting the controls more than the enemies. It relies far too heavily on constant dodge rolls to get past otherwise undodgeable bullet patterns. In theory this would be the type of game I'd actually like (spent way too much time on Isaac and currently spending too much time on Dead Cells) but I just couldn't get into it.

Also curious what other people here think of Baba Is You. Been playing this a bit and I like the concept, but it feels like a lot of puzzle solutions rely on "hidden" mechanics that aren't easily discoverable.

[Marc]

Gungeon seems to have had several updates since I last played - two of them quite considerable, rather than just tweaks. Plays a bit faster, drop rates now seem more generous, and there's definitely more money to be had. Doesn't solve the problem of its 'clunkiness', but does make it a little more palatable. I'd still rather play Iron Crypticle.

.

Also curious what other people here think of Baba Is You. Been playing this a bit and I like the concept, but it feels like a lot of puzzle solutions rely on "hidden" mechanics that aren't easily discoverable.

I've been eyeing this up since the visuals caught my eye a few weeks ago and the premise sounds interesting from what I've read.

[KAI]

Is Trails in the Sky better than Cold Steel?

yes, in every aspect, games with prerender graphics were the best of falcom.

[BulletMagnet]

yes, in every aspect, games with prerender graphics were the best of falcom.

I haven't played any of the Sky trilogy, but the impression I recall having gleaned of them was that the combat, etc. was pretty basic and the main reason to play was for the story; am I off base on that front?

[KAI]

It has some kind of deepness very late on the 1st game, but yeah, the combat system is vanilla as hell most of the time.

[Marc]

In defense of Enter The Gungeon, I thought the same bad thoughts when I first played it on release, put in 5hrs, and uninstalled. After the second huge update gave it another spin. It's now become an entirely different game. Faster pace, reasonable drops, great weapon variety and synergies (which is a ~brand new mechanic introduced with that update).

Learning to play it "properly" takes some time, e.g., not conserving resources but going (literally) guns blazing is key to the experience. Turbo mode is loads of fun, and even feels more natural for folks with shmup reflexes. Now I have 100+ hours, no regrets.

Don't expect it to play like a shmup though; dodge rolls are necessary.

I'd agree the pace and drops have improved, but I've seen nothing in 4-5 hours I've put in since of 'synergies' - what's this supposed to alter?
The dodge roll can be a little too necessary at times, that's one of my issues. I also still maintain the controls are a little unwieldy - an option to centralise that main character and fire on the right stick without using a button would have been welcome.

[Mischief Maker]

Hand of Fate 2

People say the combat is "smoother." What does that mean? Is it still a glorified QTE or is there something more now?

[Mischief Maker]

Anima: Gate of Memories

A GOG review compared this game to DMC. Is there any truth to this claim?

[BurlyHeart]

Oh wow, didn't realise so many people hated Enter the Gungeon. I think it's awesome. Great characters, lore, gameplay, items, with tons of unlockables and longevity. It frustrated the hell out of me, but I loved it. Must have put over 100+ hours into it and eventually beat it with all main characters (and some secret ones too). I would highly recommend it if what you see peaks your interest.

[kitten]

Great [...] lore

i mean, i'll chalk some of the other things up to different sensibilities, free time, expectations, etc. but... c'mon.

- - - - -

anyway, has anyone played tharsis? it's getting an LRG release friday and i'm curious about it. i do occasionally enjoy me an oregon-trail-esque experience, but it's too sluggishly paced or slavish to random nonsense, i'd want to know, beforehand.

[BurlyHeart]

Great may be a stretch, but it's still a positive contribution to the game.

[Squire Grooktook]

OK my turn! Really enamoured by the concept of the Kiseki games but every review simply states 'the plot is really deep but it's very wordy lol'. I have no intrinsic issue with wordinness, and I play a lot of of visual novels. One million word scripts are a good thing. Trails of Cold Steel has just been released for PS4. From the few screenshot I've seen it looks fairly bland in terms of mise en scene, but but if the narrative is genuinely intriguing I don't really mind. I got three hours in to Lacrimosa of Dana before giving up, not through revulsion or fatigue but basically through wanting to spend my time playing something more worthy. Should I try Trails of Cold Steel?

Why would you play Cold Steel first instead of Trails in The Sky / Sora No Kiseki? That's like asking "yo I've heard good things about [insert series here] should I go watch [sequel of a spin off of a sequel of a spin off that's not half as good as the original]"

The original Sky Anthology/trilogy is probably straight up the best written video game ever made. And I"m not one to fawn over JRPG stories (to paraphrase M.Knight, it might be the "least Japanese, Japanese writing I've ever seen", though it still has all the warmth, charm, and whimsy one would expect of a Japanese RPG). It's pretty much the game that got me into table top rpg's because after playing it I realized that I wasn't going to get another character driven game story like that for a long, long time, so I'd just have to make one.

Cold Steel - from what I've seen into it - is still entertaining but degrades into more standard anime/jrpg territory (albeit still a cut above the rest), whereas Sky unfolds like a lovingly written novel that's not afraid to spend its first 10-30 hours establishing characters and setting with slice of life.

It's also a fun game, I enjoyed the combat (methodical as it is), and the exploration, and the general interactivity added life to it. But yes, if you care about character driven adventure, Trails in The Sky absolutely delivers.

[MX7]

Why would you play Cold Steel first instead of Trails in The Sky / Sora No Kiseki? That's like asking "yo I've heard good things about [insert series here] should I go watch [sequel of a spin off of a sequel of a spin off that's not half as good as the original]"

Um, it's really not at all. But OK.

When I wrote this I didn't have a computer, and therefore no way of playing Trails In The Sky. I played a few hours a few years ago of Trails in the Sky and it was pretty fun but I got bored after exactly six hours. However I've literally just bought a new computerand re-downloaded all the games on my Steam account so maybe I'll give it another go.

[Mischief Maker]

Darksiders 3.

Specifically how's the combat system?

[Shelcoof]

Wants to hear more input on Enter The Gungeon. I have the physical switch version on pre-order.

It looks interesting but if its not that great I may just get it digital for much less

[Weak Boson]

Darksiders 3.

Specifically how's the combat system?

+1 would also be interested in thoughts on the 2nd one. For some reason I didn't stick with the first one but still retain curiosity in the series.

[Mischief Maker]

Darksiders 3.

Specifically how's the combat system?

+1 would also be interested in thoughts on the 2nd one. For some reason I didn't stick with the first one but still retain curiosity in the series.

Well I can help you with 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU9EI1WIKUM

What I want to know is if part 3 fixed the weaknesses of 2. Preferably before the gog sale ends.

[Vexorg]

Enter The Gungeon came up as one of the freebie games on the Epic Store a few weeks ago; Picked it up when it showed up but haven't had time to try it again.

[Mischief Maker]

Metal Wolf Chaos XD

Is there actual quality gameplay to go with the cutscene laffs?

[Vanguard]

Could someone give me the lowdown on Dead Cells and Hollow Knight?