Recent reviews by Arte

Solid game, I am not sure why there is a New Game + but it's a solid port from my experience.

I had two CTDs over my first complete.

Graphics - Runs very well and looks really nice - towards the later part of the game I started getting some pretty bad slow downs and frame drops.

Music - Ambient, I really can't say there is anything special here.

Controls - It's odd at first but it does a decent job of being simple but effective.

Fun - This is a classic ARPG I do not regret buying it and it is fun, I am not a fan of collect-a-thons though but it is what it is.

It is a decent fighter over all, if you like that much you'll enjoy this game. The not recommended is because of the imbalance of characters which pigeon hole you into a what is effectively meta. Again most people might actually enjoy the specific team comps that will net you that "W" but sadly for new players that "W" wont come if you are learning with characters not properly synergized for efficiency.

Graphics - Great nothing wrong here, anime games have come a long-long way.

Music - Most are simply too generic to remember but some are pretty good.

Gameplay - The game is mediocre difficulty to pick up and learn, you'll spend a lot of hours in practice mode since you wont learn much watching other players. The reason is because other players unless you are running top tier are probably running some formula of goku, vegita and kid buu with the occasional broly or bardock. There is nothing to learn from those characters and their variants aside from how to get your ass beat at every trade off. For example their lights or mediums will beat your lights and their heavies will lock you up in most situations. It's a nasty snow ball effect of just a superior character. Also the damage those characters (especially the goku and vegitas) can push out is silly.

For example: Optimal combo for Andriod 21 will do about 40-55%, requires 3 bars without the 3 bars its about 40% damage, it also requires you have two assists and be in the corner. Base Vegita can do 55% from... anywhere requiring 2 bars one for the vanish. It wouldn't be too bad if it was just a damage difference but combine that with the that those characters lights, mediums are faster and/or typically have better range then those guys have a better chance of getting in on you.

Beyond that balance problem which isn't normally a problem for arcade fighters that can't be updated, this game is actively updated for balance so it becomes then a problem because it could be solved if they saw it fit to fix it.

Those characters also feel more complete, they simply provide more options in more situations, it makes it so any predictability is based on you as a player. That's good, if someone likes to auto combo just deflect and neutral heavy them, but if they are half way decent they will correct that.

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Also before anyone thinks that this is because I am no good at the game; I am not trying to say I am some professional at this game. I can however say that I have wiped the floor with dark and light green players so badly I decided to stop and review the game as a not recommended for new players who might not like being pigeon holed into playing a meta team combination to see success past red square.

I bought this at the 90% off sale time but do not let that fool you this game will cost you quite a bit more and it will all be in vain.

Graphics - It is a one year old game which looks okay at ultra. As a PC player expect Console quality graphics.

Music - I am not a fan of these tracks but some of them are decent and none of them are too bad.

Controls - The controls may not be the worst part about this game but they are horrible. I use a wireless Xbox One controller but I've tried wired as well and it will always feel like your playing truck simulator rather than in the NBA. I could understand the tilting and skidding and floating if it was at least realistic. The AI defense simply floats around blocking your every attempt to get in. They have some kind of speed boost making your defending trash against them.

Fun - No this is a nice game that becomes tedious when you realize there is a business model to why your character is so trash. I recognized it because I've played a lot of MMORPGs so it's familiar. Your character has semi hidden stats that level up over time. You also have the obvious stats that you can pay real money to increase.

I spent $30 on this game total and got through the my career portion of the game despite some of the retarded work out mini-games. When you get to the NBA those hidden stats become so damn pronounced with every even Centers running circles around you. What's more the hidden attributes of the AI forces you to miss shots even if they are 6ft away from you because they have intimidater.

Breaking the AI ankles even with 75 handling, 50 lateral movement and 80 post movement is impossible with the hidden stats being considered. It isn't that the AI is that good, it's just that your character rolls like they had hip replacement surgery this morning. Couple that with that everyone simply goes faster than you and you have people who are past the half court catching up to you on the paint before you can complete a half roll to lay up.

These hidden stats makes for the experience as a player totally new to NBA 2k completely unfun and more frustrating than anything else. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the obvious buy gold coins options to make your character stronger option at the upgrade screen.

Conclusion - If you are new to 2k like I am I cannot recommend this game even at the 90% off rate. This is not the sport game for you - there is no tutorial mode or any hand holding even on rookie difficulty. If that's your jam then good luck - the reward of winning a game isn't even there because I gain 5% or less xp per game as I can't make 3's, can't make inside shots, can't dribble, can't pass correctly 5v5 (Whole other issue here), can't defend, and can't have fun.

Perspective - I am coming at this game for the experience of playing a NBA game and being a player - it's more like an RPG for me, what I got is something that takes itself FAR too seriously as a tournament game and is built assuming you mean to play it competitively. I have no intention of playing online or going against other people. Because of that this game is not for me.

Solid game, branches out a lot you really get quite a few endings.

Grammar is on point, story is solid no matter which branch you jump towards.

The rub is there are so many options that a lot of times there is content I feel I didn't complete - in short this is an on the rails experience. I bought it full price but had played this on mobile and knew what I was getting into.

This is game is in a very odd place. The game is not finished at all - it is certainly early access.

4.5/5 Graphically - This game is marvelous what you see is a beautifully animated and well designed world, at any moment especially during war you can feel like you are actually watching a movie more than playing a game.

2.5/5 Controls - I'm throwing some shade at the game here, I miss lock on and between this and kingdom come I'm starting to see that developers are moving towards how to make controls as confused as they can. I at times feel I could enjoy the game more if I was looking at the game rather than at four arrows or trying to shift my mouse so as to block in the correct direction. I just feel like the controls are taking away from the game more than they are adding to it.

The only saving grace for the controls is the large scale combat which has a learning curve but not to the extent that it inhibits me from seeing what is actually happening on screen and being taken for a ride on how amazing the game is. The current combat system is really distracting but the war controls are spot on.

5/5 Game Play - There are about 50 hours of game play before you get bored and 150 before you accomplish anything grand and another 100 of that before you get close to beating the game. Is it grindy HELL YES, is it doable... certainly. BannerLord suffers here but I'm giving it a perfect score only because its early access. There is a game here, with loads of content but it feels like there could be more - things are missing it feels like at each level of the game.

By level of the game I mean that the game really transitions into different things as you play. One second you are a clan leader basically being nomadic, then you are strong enough that someone might want you in their kingdom or you can try to make your own. Finally you get to Empire and so on... but some things are just missing - such as looking for a Lord to parley - sometimes these lords simply disappear. So while the game is saying they are in a city you cannot find them in that city and they never leave so you can speak with them.

5/5 The experience - The music, lighting and world building in this game are all what saves everything else. If it wasn't for the combat being utterly distracting and repulsive I'd simply say this was a good game without the experience but with the experience this is a great game.

Overall - 4/5

This is a Potemkin game; that is to say that this game began as a legitimate game and became something else as you reach end game.

The Problem: It seems like the game started Diablo-isc but then tried to be Souls without all the mechanics that make Souls style games work. The painful lack of conveniences in areas of Diablo I hadn't ever considered until this game became three time worse after each update the developers rolled out. These updates focus more on breaking the ability of a new player to enjoy the game and discourages multiplayer altogether.

For comparison: Warframe is fundamentally more difficult solo than in a team, this team is more difficult as a team and not because monsters become stronger but because fundamental mechanics are badly considered. Warframe individualizes how many times you can revive, this game just sets your revive to zero when in multiplayer. Combine that with the ability of enemy AoE to one shot anyone, lag, graphic stutter, near zero call time on some 1hko moves and you have party wipes being the norm.

It would be fine if it were just that your party has to retry that map but instead you are shunted out with your party losing everything you invested into that map's resources including the time already spent. You do retain items you grabbed though which you can sell... individually over and over and over. You will probably spend more time selling individual items than playing in a dungeon between party wipes.

If you play solo you can revive yourself, learn from the enemy and try to avoid their 1hko's, also there is less lag solo and less graphic stutter.

Conveniences: The one saving grace of doing multiplayer is that when an ally opens a chest its contents appear for you as well. Considering the size of the maps and the objective being usually to slay everything, this actually helps with time doing a run as allies can split up to take out regular mobs and group up for champions or bosses when needed. Except it turns out that incentive to play multiplayer was a bug and you need to stay with your party 100% of the time or else maybe missing out on legendaries or other things that they wouldn't even know dropped since they can't see what you rng'd. So they patched out items popping up at your feet... so what.

The point: The game has no cow level for you to farm money, the game charges you 100000 gold for an easy update and 200000 to 1000000 gold for every other update to things you need. Want more storage? 100000 gold. Want that 5th skill slot? 200000 gold. Want to increase your production rate? 1000000 gold. While enemies drop 10-100 gold and rare items sell for 200-400 gold.

But wait there's more: To add magic find buffs to your missions that also makes enemies markedly harder you need to spend gold... why? I don't know. 12k gold for the maximum which basically lets regular enemies have boss auras, elite enemies spawn more regular enemies, champ enemies act like bosses and bosses rofl stomping anything.

It's not a bad game, but as it is now it deserves the Mixed review, and arguably maybe a bit worse.

Note I didn't talk about the music, level design, graphics and so on because those are all good. What killed this game are the borked mechanics which have for me with all the teleport bugs, 1hko's, tkos and losing resources for canceling research you didn't even start become fubar.

I like the game a lot, have no clue what I'm doing but it feels like a stream lined Kenshi, if they do an update for it then I'd love to have the option for more gore: limbs flying things like that. Also some fatalities would be nice, back in the age of the Qin dynasty it wasn't uncommon for people to be cleaved in two at the waist.

Alrighty, I'm back to add to my review of this game, above is the old review.

Firstly this game is great, if it's on sale do not miss it, if it isn't consider it. My main complaint is the size of the world, it's not large enough! It needs to be 8 times larger, it needs to have 8 times the factions, it needs to be a ton more violent. This is a game that would do better if Quentin Tarantino was directing it.

It's got great music, it's got nice art, it's got a story sure, but what you're here for is the potential ability to rule the world. Doing this with people loving you is tricky, just deal with the hate by murdering your haters. Chaos is a ladder and rising to the top in this game is very fun.

This is modding support, and I appreciate that, but it's a bit too hard to get my hands around. Cultivation Simulator does a far better job with their ingame Mod Workshop. Regardless this is a great game, lots of bang for the buck.

It has a charm that brings me back, it's enough to keep me interested. The art style is good and the game play is solid.

The take away: This game plays on the psychology of gamers doing specific things to waste your time and money.

Caveat: Your time is your own, my point here is that this game introduces certain mechanics that are obviously based on creating and then capitalizing on addiction. This isn't the first and wont be the last game that does this, but this game does a horrible job of at least covering up what it is doing.

The Game:

Graphics - The art is great for the characters, you wont notice it in game play but when you do stop and look at your character it's fine considering the art style.

Art Style - If you like Anime you will probably enjoy this.

Effects - Very good and are being updated over time so it's hard to really judge this.

Music - Nice at the begining, becomes repetitive but you can always run your own stuff.

Sound Effects - Nothing the write home about.

Story - The game comes across as late alpha or early beta, it has no exploration and certainly no story, there are a few episodes of story like content but that's all unless you count the affinity system. (More on that later)

Combat - This is what the game is based around and this is what it does fairly well, other games have done it before and this game refines on that; to be honest I think Dragon Nest did it better.

Loot:

RNG - Each map is an arena where you fight an enemy or two the more you beat them the higher the difficulty next time. The higher the difficulty the higher the % chance of getting the 1 item they drop... I believe you can get as high has 4%.

Affinity - This is part of RNG also you have a less than 50% chance of meeting an npc after wining an arena fight. You then have a sub sub RNG where you select dialog with the npc and it might count towards the unlockable dialog, if it does you get affinity with that NPC and at certain points they give you loot. For reference this can take you a week or two to get anything decent.

Gacha Boxes - Basically gambling, give them 3 dollars and you get a Storage box with costumes... don't be fooled these are equipment and the stats look similar but they give more augment slots normally unless you get garbage... it's a gamble.

Fun - When you realize you can pay to win in a game with pvp... it kind of throws things off a bit. Of course pay to win is hidden behind a Gacha wall. I haven't tried the PvP though and since I discovered the gacha stuff I dropped the game so I probably wont ever try the pvp.


Finally:
I'm begining to think Valve is moderating the review section, this is my 3rd time writing this, I went very indepth the 1st and 2nd time and for the powers that be this time I will be saving the review to copy paste it.

This game is not for you if you work for a living: You will not have the time needed to grind in this game and the games inventory loss feature upon your death will screw over your valuable time spent in a matter of seconds.

I have two hours to play every other day.

For example; after a week of play I got to Tier 4 play, first finding a group to dungeon with is manual, there is no match making... I thought this was 2019. Then after an hour of my two hours I can play I gave up looking for a group and went to a pvp zone to make some money for materials. I was then ganged up on and killed losing my T4 gear and even my tools to gather resources.

If you have the patience to grind and have the risk of losing everything because at a certain point they place materials you need in pvp zones where you risk losing hours of game play in an instant then this is the game for you.

For anyone who works for a living I will not recommend this game.

A quick fix to this would be that you do not lose your inventory if killed by someone at a higher Tier than you, but whatever, much like the non-existant match making system the pvp system is ill construed and wasted my time.