Recent reviews by Tsuken

Really, really great game. The 1.0 release is excellently optimized, the gameplay loop is fun and rewarding, and the game gives you loads of tools to do basically what you want in the way that you want to.

This is the kind of game that I wish we could get more of, especially in an industry that is currently rife with rushed-to-release products, even in the indie development space. This game started in early access, and is feature complete and working great right out of the gate, and I really appreciate that about it.

Overall, I have already dumped 19 hours into this post release, and at this stage I am confident that I will get hundreds of hours of entertainment out of this gorgeous little gem. Kudos, Coffee Stain, you outdid yourselves. <3

This was a tough one. I really enjoy that the games industry still has these little-guy developers with big dreams, but this one just isn't it... Yet. I hope that with time and effort, Luis will be able to make this into what they envisioned, but I do not feel that it is in a state that I can with good conscience recommend it. On the tin, and in the first couple of hours of gameplay, the concept is solid, but I feel that it struggles greatly under half-baked player character systems.

An indie game can really do well with a concept like this if it focuses on fundamentals above all else. Creating a player controller that feels satisfying to use is a must, and everything in this game is just short of being that way. Parkour feels alright, but it also does not feel responsive. While the potential is there and tools exist for the player to be able to experiment and come up with creative solutions to the problems presented by the game, the actual practice of doing so does not feel like it has been allowed for. For example, the game has an item that extends into a rigid pole when thrown against a wall, or onto the ground. Based on the gameplay videos I saw, you might think you could use these to knock out pursuing enemies. In actual practice, they just get bonked on their ass and continue to pursue you most of the time, and when your character is set up for parkour and it takes between fifty and sixty punches to take down the weakest enemy in the entire game... The loop falls flat on its face.

I really believe that the dev has a bright future, but I do not feel that this early foray is worth the price point. $5-$10 would make much more sense.

TL;DR: A noble attempt by a newer indie dev who clearly has potential to create an immersive sim that does not quite feel satisfying to play and is generally plagued by Unity indie jank. Maybe get it on a sale if you're not sure.

Really just... Lackluster. Wait for a sale, or for the offerings to be improved. I don't even really feel like going into any amount of detail here, it's just all out there in the open. The new characters are really boring, though the Seeker does fine and the Chef is thematically cute.

This whole release just feels like the left hand has no clue what the right is doing. Gearbox was bad for this franchise.

Yet another pretty good Ubisoft game which gets review bombed by people who buy a Ubisoft game and are surprised to get a Ubisoft game, and have the two requisite brain cells to rub together to be able to leave a review about it. Negative reviews regarding crashes and the game not being playable due to performance are probably legit, but they really need to refund the game as well if that's their experience.

Also, if you enjoy the Avatar franchise (yes, we exist) I feel this game will be right up your alley. The game is considered canon, and there is a treasure trove of taxonomy information for just about everything you could imagine, which all gets catalogue'd Mass Effect codex-style as you identify items in the game world. If you're looking for an immersive experience that throws you head-first into the world of Pandora as one of the Na'vi, this game is definitely for you. Even in the 8 hours (and it feels like I have only scratched the surface) I have in the game, I can sense the love and attention and "we're gonna do this, and we're gonna do it right" that was put into this game by Massive.

This feels far more like an immersive sim than it does your standard "go here do this, kill this guy here, talk to this guy there" Ubisoft gameplay loop, but that is the loop that is hiding behind the exceedingly beautiful facade (serious, this game is absolutely gorgeous), so if that kind of gameplay turns you off, you may be better off skipping this one or waiting until it's on sale. If this sounds like your cup of tea, great. Turn on Exploration mode for your Quest Guidance, and set the Combat Challenge to whatever kind of experience you're looking for, and it will only occasionally feel like your typical Ubisoft title. For my part, I feel like this game is certainly worth the $40-ish I paid for it.

Now, regarding performance. I have 32GB of DDR5 RAM, an i7-7700K, and a GTX 3070 Ti, and the game runs around 50-70 FPS on slightly-adjusted high settings at 1440p resolution. Considering how jaw-dropping the game looks (99% of the time, there are some bugs and a little jank here and there), I consider this a reasonable trade-off, as the occasional noticeable dips below 60 FPS do not impact system resources to create input lag. If you need ALL your games to run at a detectable percentage of the speed of light, this game will most likely not be for you. I expect extreme spec rigs don't run too much better than my own fairly middling PC.

TL;DR: A refreshing take on the Ubisoft formula that feels like it was crafted with love and care, an immersive sim that feels right at home on Pandora, a love letter to the franchise as a whole, and a game that has no business running as well as it does on my hardware (see above) for as good as it looks.

Look. I loved this game when it first came out, I really did. It was a lot of fun. However, it has aged like milk, and the "enhancements" they've made don't do much for it.

The game controls like ass by today's standards. Everything your character does feels like they're moving through jelly. Bullet deviation has always been a thing in Borderlands, and it started here, but it's really clear that they've made vast improvements to how it feels in later installments.

Also, mouse smoothing is TURNED ON BY DEFAULT, and can't be disabled unless you dig into .ini configuration files. This is kind of a minor gripe, and a one-time fix, but I feel like the thought process behind that decision sort of tells you what you need to know about the rest of it.

You should play Borderlands. Borderlands is a BLAST. But you can skip this. Buy the complete edition of Borderlands 2 or Borderlands 3 before you spend money on this.

This game is great. Great controls, great music, solid story and an immersive world.

Also, you're a cat. And you do cat things. What more could you possibly want?

Masterpiece.

This isn't a remaster, though. It's more of a retelling. Don't go into it expecting to play FF7 again, go into it expecting a fresh take on the gameplay, some minor changes to the story, and an overall great experience!

Edit: Man, some of you can't cope with someone having a different experience than you, huh? That's okay. Keep the free points coming.

It's three bucks.
It updates for free constantly.
It's simple and fun, and provides loads of progression.
What more do you want?

There's literally no reason this needs a horror theme. I think it works to its detriment.

That said, its results are accurate, if a little obtuse and fairly easily applied to any one of a vast strata of individuals that might answer questions a certain way. Still an interesting little experiment that does likely have merit for a lot of people, possibly even myself. It might have told me something I needed to hear, even if it's difficult to take an uncaring, unfeeling algorithm on its word that it "comes from a place of love and adoration", and that fact makes it difficult to truly take to heart.

Secret word: Chaos

if only I had a giant pickle...

The most accessible Soulsborne title ever. Play it.