Recent reviews by Pox

At first I was ambivalent, so I didn't leave any review or thought much of it. Didn't take the game really seriously even while playing, which, looking back, was a disservice to the game itself.

It took a (relatively) long time for me to get around the game again, but it was in the form of hearing other people's thoughts on it. Then watching. And eventually playing some more.
In that process, it occured to me that this is the best depiction of love I've ever witnessed in media as of this year. But I do not have that much experience in media consumption, so this statement can't be correct.
Still, it tackles themes around love in such a delicate way (and sometimes not so delicate) that it's really an endearing thing to read/hear/see.
And +1 for all the horror elements that add to it in more ways than one.

Not to mention the Pristine Cut that's coming up by the end of the year. Don't know what to expect, but... man, what a game already.
Also doubles as a great personality test, a filter for those that can't see beyond themselves, and those that lack empathy.

Is it worth it at full price? I'll pull the Disco Elysium card on this one (before the Zaum collapse): If you're into games exploring the human condition in some form that's not uppity... maybe. I'd recommend it on sale if you care about the VN itself rather than the underlying currents it weaves accurately.
Under the lense of a video game (or VN if you don't think VNs are video games) as art, in that sense I would recommend it full price.

Real European experience

Whatever everyone else said is probably true, dislike or not, I don't know, I can't read, but if you're into cRPGs, the narrative and characters are very much compelling. The gameplay is about the same as in Divinity Original Sin/2, so nothing's lost there. Big thing, big game, real things in there too.

I'd also recommend checking out Pillars of Eternity Deadfire while you're reading this (potentially).
Ok bye thanks you have a lovely day bye

A nice somewhat flashy JRPG that has a lot more in common with Monster Hunter than it does typical other games in the same genre. Also some Tales Of action in there. And probably other stuff. You already read the other reviews though, I just wanted to give it a thumbs up, it's a really fun game.

Planning on playing a lot more, but even then so far I'd say it's worth the full price.

Well, it's a subjective choice, that sort of thing, but yeah. Erm. Nice game.

Aside from the remaining bugs that don't tend to be gamebreaking or even, in my opinion, annoying (albeit immersion-breaking), the game is really one of the best when it comes to writing and, especially, characters. I won't speak much on the gameplay, the stuff may not be the best out there, though this aspect is "good enough" and enjoyable most of the time. Maybe some mods to spice it up would be something to recommend.
Nevertheless, the writing, voice-acting, all that ♥♥♥♥? Man that's beyond top tier.

You know, aside from the start controversy (always be patient, you'll always be proven right), and from the crunch galore at CD Projekt Red (something something irony), it's a real good piece of software.
But, I played so much of it in so little time, I think it's time to go touch some grass and go back to working in the forest now.
48 hours of gameplay at -50% discount, definitely worth it.
Will be replaying it too, complete some other side stories I haven't bothered to because I got what I felt was "alright", and oh boy was it.

Really really good game at a good price. Even, dare I say, full price might be worth it. I dunno though, that's up to you to decide, you know the worth of things for yourself. May be poor, more by choice than anything else, but if you can scrounge up the will and money, if you're into character-driven entertainment pieces, ♥♥♥♥'s good. Real good. Take your time and you'll enjoy the ride, and also, again, do get some mods to make the experience just a little bit better for you (if you know what you like).

Zoomer-tier ARPG made for mobile with a decent enough PC port.

Addicting, crafting is simple yet not too simple (depends where you come from), nice range of affixes, not too luck reliant once you understand how it works.

In the past I said that there were no P2W elements, that it was whale bait, but now it's safe to say that it's not true anymore. Nevertheless I would recommend it, if you're willing to shill a few dozens per season, it's worth the price. See the game more like "Free to try" like Path of Exile is, but do note that money will get you just a little further than not paying (though not much, it's still something to take into account).

Definitely my favorite DLC off the bunch, if only for the lore implications when it comes to learning about the Pale Elves and Rymrgand.
Still, beyond that, this one is different. It is likely quite a frustrating piece if one goes in guns blazing, so I would suggest taking the game at a slower pace even on hard or lower difficulty (except story I guess).

The art direction is fantastic, as well as the pieces in play. The use of the nature of Rymrgand's realm and the trapping of old souls is something well executed. However I must point out that the progression can feel frustrating, and even on a second playthrough a year or two after the first I found myself in need of guidance, though I admit I was rather impatient when I arrived to play the DLC again. I can recall that, the first time, I fared better. So perhaps that is the key here: Patience will bring you more enjoyment towards this DLC.

Now, if one is familiar with Rymrgand: do as he would want you to, and you will get out free of charge (kinda).
There's a fair few ways to end the DLC, and all of them have surprised me. To note that I have however watched some of them; wasn't going to bother myself to get every endings because that would mean a lot of additional playtime, I think. Wasn't gonna try anyway.

So yeah, not a big review, just here to perhaps entice the individual to buy that one. You totally should though, even if you dislike or don't care for the main God of this DLC. There's a lot for anyone that cares about the worldbuilding.

A very good change of pace from any traditional RPG or cRPG. A point & click some say, though because you can highlight everything you can interact with, and it's actually not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nightmare to go through, it hardly qualifies for the genre here. It sells itself as a cRPG and it is. No combat, of course, that's part of the promotion for it, and it delivers on that prospect. And by combat I suppose it would be more fair to say there's no "gameplay" for it. Traditional gameplay, at least. Actually, if you give a big thonk about it, this *is* traditional gameplay. Literally returned to monke. Amazing.

The game is text and voice acting, a lot of both. Complete VA as well, so that's really a high bar already - even moreso when it's quality, and it's there.

Not to say the game is perfect, but that's the issue with trying to recreate a tabletop RPG experience I suppose: unless using another real human bean on the other end as a GM or something, you're still limited to the choices presented to you.
Luckily the choices are quite numerous mostly, but there is something to note, it's that the character played is not a blank slate exactly. Perhaps that's a good way to justify the design choices on that part.

The art is gorgeous. Not much to say on the 3D aspect, rarely zoomed in and I hardly care for it, not really my style to try to make things as realistic as possible. Stylistically it achieves what it wants through the 2D art, the worldbuilding and of course the characters. Amazing ♥♥♥♥, simple as that.

OST is very nice, and there's a good balance of silence and ambience.

Anyway yeah. It's actually all text and check based, pen and paper system, so, not much to say. It's a system that works, albeit too random for my taste, which is why there's integrations of "minimum rolls" in many RPG systems. There is one here don't get me wrong, but there's a system of "white" and "red" checks that have a success chance based on a specific attribute of yours. There's a lot of them, you've seen the pictures already. The EXP gain is a complete constant, simple as 100 XP per level always. Actually really nice and doesn't make you want to end your life. Goes well with the pace, as I suppose it helps to dictate the pace. A word here on the "thoughts cabinet", which are basically +/- for your passives or specific interaction types.

If you want to lose yourself in art, in something, but something of quality: the good ♥♥♥♥, you know? That's one of these games. Maybe we'll see more down the line, having a *product*, as it still is one, and always anything will be that comes out; but the developers have done a fantastic job.

Not a great review but I felt like I owed it to someone to show that yes, in fact, I did buy the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game after years for a decent enough discount, as I said I would.

While the game today, on release, is quite fun, and the mechancics feel solid, there is always one big issue: Early Access.

Now, I bought the game because it seemed fun, first and foremost. Of course some buyers will have some sense of pride in the dev team because of their nationality, especially when you know of Wolcen. I still shudder to think about the sheer mediocrity, and even complete incompetence of this dev team. That said, one could say they had nothing concrete under the hood in the first place, and we should have all went away after they did some weird ♥♥♥♥ in the early stage.

I bring this up because of the difference with The Slormancer. I have been following the (2) devs for a relatively long time now, and besides a somewhat weird plug on patreon, which I hope they will remove because at some point it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ weird when your product is here and working properly, less they do something revolutionary which might as well be a possibility; well the difference is their complete openness towards their community. Good to note though, that this might change, but so far we can look at the Last Epoch team for a guinea pig of what happens to a very welcoming and open dev team, and by extension community, when a good bunch of disgrunted veterans from a big game enters in hordes.

So why buy the game really? On one hand you'll probably have a good time, if you can bite your lip and go through the leveling process. Good thing is that the only current endgame stuff is already available early on.
And that's on the other hand: Investing. As is tradition early access games are cheaper during this period of early development. Honest folks tend to use this system as a tool to gain feedback and attract a good core fanbase, while dishonest actors use this as a quick cash grab. Yet here the investment can already be made back, and there's very little reason to believe the dev team will abandon and run away. Of course there is always a possibility, after all they are making the game in a somewhat weird engine, but perhaps there is something worthwhile to hold onto.

Unless they utterly destroy the game or abandon it before the end of Early Access, I will leave this positive review up. It's already a decent time, but if you want a good time with a decent amount of ENGAGING content, probably wait early 2022 before purchasing this one.

Wolcen... Wolcen Studio.

What a bunch of monkeys over there. Over 5 years of development, release a completely broken game, they don't understand game concepts and ARPG game concepts (no force move on left click, end-game is somehow weaker than D3). The combat is ok, the game is only pretty.

There's 0 balance to anything in this game, movement is hell and skills' runes are uninspired beyond belief. Worse than D3, too.

Look, I played basically every popular and semi-popular (even niche) ARPG games. You can check my profile if you desire to fact-check. One thing I'll tell you: Wolcen Studios don't get anything. They wanted to make a pretty ARPG, and that's all they made. The willpower/rage mechanic is just a novelty and is just an annoyance because all people do is just use willpower or rage as two different manabars. All the good builds are blue or orange, no in-between.
Good job on making your one difference absolutely irrelevant, guys.
Combat gets old after a few dozen hours because as it turns out, besides the broken stuff that don't work, it gets more boring than being burned out on a PoE league after hundreds of hours, or two weeks of one season of D3.

Another thing would be the sheer incompetence from the Wolcen team to communicate with their players and listen to anyone but themselves. Their community manager is a massive joke that deserves to be shafted, and the whole studio too, might as well get rid of it entirely.
They're a stain on the indie video game scene: Multiple betrayals of their loyal kickstarter backers, from breaking promises made during the campaign to pulling release plans from different websites, just so they can be massively lazy and ♥♥♥♥ over consumers who don't want to deal with Steam's DRM.
And the biggest facepunch was the transition from alpha to beta. Scrap all the game, remove features that aren't even in the final version (did you know they had housing as promised but then removed it, even if it was working fine?).

This game is below mediocre and I can't believe I spent so much time trying to like it.

So, I like the game. Kind of. It's very mediocre for an ARPG. It got the universe right I reckon, but there's something off about all of it.
Maybe it's the fact that the fundations were slower and clunkier, and they tried to salvage a decent game out of it. I think it worked, but honestly, if you want a good game, right now is not the time.

I like summon-type characters in games, although not too much either, but it's something I can ♥♥♥♥ with. This game especially has a very interesting take on summons. Reserving big summons, customizing them, going hybrid or full summoner. Especially the customizing aspect. It's very nice.

But there's an issue with all of this: Passives and items are an absolute snoozefest. I thought it would get better eventually, but it didn't. Ancient relics are basically gimped items until you unveil them through objective completion. I don't understand why anyone thought this would be a good idea.
Passive unlocks take forever when they're hidden behind the achivements system, which is not interesting either. Speaking of which, if you have a specific build in mind, some passives are hidden behind levels. And not level 20. IIRC there's one for Tech Adept that's in the 50s. Which is insane. I don't understand why I had to get to level 40 so I could finally unlock a passive I needed for my build to work without me wanting to wait a hundred years every mission so I could summon more turrets.

Combat is fine though, it's not the best but it's not the worst either.
I can't see much love poured in this game, especially if you're a lore hound.

Absolutely not worth the full price, and not even 50% off. Go at 70% if you want to play an ARPG with at least interesting ideas. What you will find, at the end of the road however, is a disappointment. You'll be glad you didn't pay more than you did.

I'll keep playing the game for a bit, but if there's nothing of interest in, let's say 10 hours, I'll drop it and be on my way to better days.