Hawke64

Are Legend of Grimrock 1/2 good in terms of story when compared to Icewind Dale (a reasonably good and slightly interactive story) or Baldur's Gate (even more interactive story)? Same question about Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader and Lords of Xulima.

Ender Lilies. Defeated Hoenir, the Keeper of the Abyss, and Miriel, the Beloved. Not particularly fond of bosses with a lot of adds, especially when both cause collision damage and move swiftly/teleport. The MC now has even more tentacles and thick red veins on the legs, up to the knees. Which probably means that the ending is close. Also, the bosses gave the two traversal abilities I was missing, so going to backtrack and loot everything. Story-wise, it is coming together - which character did what and why, though there are still some missing pieces.

That quest, A Refuge from the Present, is a backer reward and involves an unavoidable turn-based battle with infinitely* respawning demons. Also it is a Fallout reference. Nothing is lost from skipping it. *requires to interact with 3 statues, while the interaction icons are not visible clearly.

It's been a few years since I played it, but The Outer Worlds was as good as any first-person RPG with action elements can be - definitely beats TES IV - V by being more concise and having meaningful skill checks (as opposed to the mini-game in TESIV). Not sure about the difficulty - can't quite remember. But exploring in-doors areas was great and there was no railroading. Pentiment. Played for an hour. The controls are uncomfortable - the MC does not seem to run by default, there are too many invisible walls, the mouse becomes inactive after using the keyboard. In terms of GUI, there are too many pointless animations, tooltips for NPCs are useless (they show the portrait; not the description of who the NPC is and how they are related to the MC or where they can be found), the map is 2D while the locations are mostly 1D. The pacing has been slow - some dialogues being unavoidable is the fault of the genre chosen - much harder to stealth through a cut-scene trigger in an adventure game than in an immersive sim or RPG. On the bright side, the MC's backgrounds have been referenced and they provide new dialogue options. I guess, I've chosen a wrong time to play it - Pentiment needs longer sessions to appreciate it. I am also unfamiliar with the setting, which does not help.

There was dedicated stealth gameplay - you could skip quite a lot of the critical path by stealing an item, not to mention stealth kills.

I liked Dead Space and its combat system - can't remember dismemberment implemented effectively anywhere else (in The Surge, maybe?). Though, would prefer the MC to remain silent, because it is more immersive and less irritating. I think, there were MTX in the last game (and the DLC's ending was disappointing)?

Pentiment. Just started the game, after hearing a lot of its flaws. So far I can tell that looks beautiful, the writing is adequate, the journal, unskippable animations (on text appearing, journal/menus opening, location transitions, etc.), and 1 save slot per playthrough are indeed undesirable.

The Rogue Trader gameplay trailer somehow lacked the actual gameplay (combat system with UI, inventory and party management, conversations, etc.), but the animations look nice. I hope that optimisation will be better than in WotR and it will be a complete game in 1-2 months after the initial release (WotR is still in active development, judging by the bug fixes and paid content updates; at least, GOG protects from the forced updates). I probably expect too much from Owlcat, though.

Will unlimited manual saving, adequate tooltips for NPC (who are they, where they can be found, and how they are related to the MC), and fast travel be added at a later date? At the moment, the only way to have several save points is to copy the files via Windows Explorer, the NPC tooltips are not helpful, and uneventful travelling through several screens seems pointless. Having the option to remain silent in many dialogues would be nice as well, but harder to implement. Edit. Also the ability to skip all animations (switching between journal tabs, travelling between locations, etc.) and show text instantly would be most welcome as well. Edit (2). Tyranny had an amazing feature of showing the reputation changes alongside dialogue replies. The same option could be used in Pentiment.

In DS2-3 it was relatively easy to follow side quests, due to their more linear structure, than DS1 or, I assume, Elden Ring (have not played yet). Their narrative was coherent and fit the mood of the games. In general, I value interactive, player-driven stories in RPGs (e.g. Obsidian games, DS), thus I am glad to see Elden Ring there.

Ender Lilies. It feels heavier on backtracking than I am used to, but the area transitions and whether a location is fully looted are shown on the map. I think, I am missing at least 3-4 moves. Defeated Ulv, the Mad Knight and acquired the wall-climbing ability. Also defeated/purified several mini-bosses. One of them was a dog who could damage the MC only by touch. On that note, touch damage in general should either not exist or be applied by the MC as well as the opponents.

Nothing can stand against barrelmancy/lava. There are a lot of ways to cheese your way through, but it makes the battles more gimmicky, than tactical. Expeditions: Viking. Cleared the prologue. The time limit strongly reminds of Pathfinder: Kingmaker, as does the settlement/clan management screen, but, fortunately, no advisors or random events yet.

Agreed, both are more enjoyable with friends. The combat system in D:OS2 was a hit-or-miss - a lot of opportunities for cheese/synergy, but one might dislike the reliance on crowd-control/armour. The story seemed to use the Chosen One trope, but still had some interesting moments. Expeditions: Viking. Started the game. Realised that the primary stats cannot be changed after character creation and there are chance-based checks. On a positive note, it is possible to use non-lethal weapons in combat and the game acknowledges surviving opponents.

Ender Lilies. I've defeated Guardian Silva and the MC has sprouted tentacles. Alas, they did not seem to do anything. Also a ghost that appeared after the battle told that we were the chosen ones. Trying to find the right (possible to progress) path is becoming increasingly difficult, partially because I can't remember which uncompleted location requires what power, partially because I occasionally cannot tell if I am doing something wrong or I miss the ability that is required to proceed. The opponents have become quite deadly, though packs of rats proved to be the most dangerous due to the MC taking damage upon stepping onto an enemy. @KeyrockThanks for the review.

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights. It is a metroidvania game. It looks and sounds beautiful, runs well, supports 5+ button mice. Despite the Souls-like store tag, I could not see any Souls-specific influence - the protagonist loses nothing upon death, awakening at the last not-bonfire rested at; attacks don't cost stamina (there is no stamina in general) though non-main attacks have limited uses between rests; character progression is linear - higher level equals higher stats and there are collectibles giving insignificant improvements (e.g. +5 HP). The story follows an amnesiac priestess called Lily and her retinue of purified spirits on a journey to regain her memory and save the kingdom from the Blight. Each spirit gives an ability or attack type, which can be upgraded. I have found 2 more main (infinite uses) attack types, but no upgrades for the original sword/knight yet. The bosses are diverse and challenging and the battles become harder as they progress. I have noticed 2-3 stages for the main story boss battles. The protagonist's appearance has changed slightly during the game - story-wise, purification corrupts the person conducting the ritual.

Writing my second MSc coursework. Questioning how can I say "2+2=4" in 4 times as many words and in a unique fashion. "For generations, it has been known that two, which is one added to one, when the addition of another two is performed, results in four". I suppose, it does test my creativity and patience, but none of the actual practical skills I aim to learn.

Infinitely respawning drowners (the water zombies?), hard to navigate, and it looked unappealing. I suppose, it's good that the swamp was not poisonous (I think it wasn't?) and that the enemy placement was changing at night.

I suppose, I could try Bayonetta 3 with an emulator at some point. Not going to purchase a console for 1 game (again, did it for Bayonetta 2). --- Completed Sable to a satisfactory point - found out why there are crates manufactured in London. Also it nicely explains why everyone wears masks.

"Completed" Sable. With the quotations marks, because the ending can be triggered after 2-3 masks have been collected. I had expected something slightly more epic than "go on your coming-of-age journey and come back" - there has been no grander purpose. On the other hand, there is one lore-related mystery I am going to explore more, which also has some light puzzle-platforming elements to it.

Nenio gives some hints for dialogue-based puzzles (one or two, if I remember correctly). Though, the dungeon itself is an exercise in frustration - the puzzle rules are not exactly clear, the interface is not meant for puzzles, most of the combat encounters are very similar in nature. I have been thinking about replaying WotR (haven't done the Angel Mythic Path and it is said to be the most developed one), but the length of a playthrough is quite discouraging. Also the Enigma.

Sable. While still lovely, the game is getting slightly repetitive. I suppose, it is a very minimalistic version of Conan: Exiles - no combat or crafting. The MC can stand in fire, get hit by lightning, and fall from 20+ metres without any consequences. Though, admittedly I've been mostly travelling, instead of going straight for quest objectives or looking for dungeons/space ships. On the other hand, the last quest I've picked is to gather 3 pieces of excrements and before that 3 crystals. But the writing is still quite nice - stylistically consistent, fitting, and of reasonable length.

Wasteland 3. The attention to details is amazing - I've been replaying Denver and the area changes slightly as the story progresses. The former Godfisher camp was inhabited by drools, then a quest-unrelated NPC appeared, whom I had not seen on the previous playthrough. The base game has quite impressive quality and quantity of voiced dialogues. While I wouldn't mind it being only partially voiced and having more dialogues, the VA is reasonably good and the options are plentiful and meaningful. I also found the Golden Toaster and now it is following the party (by levitating).

Completed Mortal Shell after taking a month-long break. In general, it runs perfectly well, the controls are comfortable and rebindable, the graphics are well-made, the file size is reasonable, the save files are located in /Documents/My games. The sound and movesets are adequate. What I strongly disliked was the encounter and area design - too many too similar regular enemies, too corridor-like similarly-looking locations with few to none landmarks - walls/high cliffs and fog effectively prevented from meaningful navigation*. While it was nice that after defeating an area boss, the area changed slightly, the fog got old rather quickly. As for the bosses, most of them* had 1 very punishable and baitable attack and it was just a matter of patience, which is better than total randomness, but not exactly engaging. About the final boss. Unlike the previous ones, it was not a armoured humanoid, but he was just as easy to bait. The difficulty came from his summons, fragile as they were, - around a dozen of them beelining to you and doing jumping attacks. 3-4 times during my successful attempt. Another thing that the boss was regenerating after getting to ~20% HP, and seeing the bar getting to ~70% was rather discouraging. Preventable, though. *the exception is the second part of the ice area - you had a hole in the middle of it and that's where you needed to go. The boss as well had different movesets in different phases and was less predictable than the others.

Scrolls of Atonement. Not particularly RP-friendly/immersive, but efficient. Considering games cannot track the player's thoughts unless they are clearly expressed (e.g. setting the alignment at character creation) and most actions can have wildly different motivations, removing the alignment system and replacing it with faction-/NPC-specific affiliation/loyalty (e.g. Tyranny) seems preferable. Speaking of writing, comparing to the Larian games, Owlcat's feel tamer or more subtle, though both are rather sarcastic (not the right word, but "over-the-top humourous" does not fit either).

Started Sable. It seems to be a platformer/exploration game and strongly reminds of Shadow of the Colossus in terms of the climbing mechanic, which I like. There are (thankfully, unvoiced) dialogues, but since all options have led to the same replies, I found it meaningless. Slowly replaying the main part of Wasteland 3, trying out different builds and companions. SMGs with explosive ammo are OP.