Grant Dotter
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Gamer Escape Latest Reviews
Wow. Just… Wow. That was my feeling when I hit the credits roll after just over 150 hours. I really lost myself in the game world (which is actually relatively accurate to the real world with its locations and layout, as was the first game) at times. More so than any other game I’ve played in many years, I found myself committed to finally seeing to the main objective the first game left unfinished. It was hard for me to even pull myself away for other things when I needed to. I was think...
A draft of this review started while I was playing was somewhat more positive. But as I got further, it felt more and more like I was sugar-coating things and telling myself, “this has potential, maybe it will get better.” Unfortunately it didn’t, and I left Flint feeling simply disappointed. There are moments of clarity – the narrative is fine, and the soundtrack is solid. The game mechanics had the potential to be good, were they presented to the player more effectively, and used mo...
I’ll take that a step further and say that this is a great JRPG entry point for Western players who are more used to the RPGs made in the States or Europe. It’s worth a play for almost anyone who can spare the potentially triple-digit hours needed to get through it.
Some of the difficulty is good, and some of it is bad. If you’re into games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring, you will probably have a good time with this. But if you’re new to the “Soulslike” genre and looking for a challenge, you might want to start with one of those games first, lest you be frustrated too easily by the unfortunately fairly numerous stumbles Deathbound takes. It leans more good than bad, with a creative party system and mostly satisfying combat, but ultimately, I thin...
It is for these reasons I issue it a score with my recommendation for serious genre fans, who will likely eat this one up as it presses the right buttons. But for those of you who weren’t around for games like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Unreal, or Hexen, there may be better entry points to the classic FPS genre.
The only issue, really, is I think it is quite the specific niche for a game to fill. Unless you’re really into this game’s subject matter (Hey, if you like decorating housing in Final Fantasy XIV, you might just be one of these people), you’re probably going to pass on this. The game does try its best to give you the full experience without making it feel too much like real work, but for me at least, I spend enough time cleaning that I don’t really need to do it in a video game. Havi...
While it’s hard to ignore some of the gameplay issues (some of which EA has promised to address as of this writing), the overall experience of EA Sports PGA Tour is very impressive as far as golf games go. The graphics and audio are top notch, as is the golfer creation and the wide range of options available. This game is a sim and not a super easy game, but the developers clearly wanted a wide range of players to be able to enjoy it with the assistance features, and it does a pretty good j...
If you’re a Castlevania fan who hasn’t played this game for some reason, you owe it to yourself to buy this now. And even if you’re not, it’s still more super high-quality content for an awesome game that clearly is standing the test of time, made with clear and demonstrated love by independent developers, and you should buy it anyway.
The game itself is competently executed, and if I try really hard to ignore the rip-off side of things, I would call it a decent game. But even then it has some pretty significant flaws. So while I did derive some enjoyment from it, due to its rough edges (among other things) it’s really hard to recommend to anyone unless you’re a die-hard tactical RPG fan who doesn’t want to own a Nintendo system and/or doesn’t like the Fire Emblem or even the Final Fantasy Tactics IPs. Which is unfo...
Unfortunately, I feel that while it’s a very good *simulation*, it isn’t a very good *game*, and I can really only recommend this to the hardcore skate fans who don’t like all the arcade-style skate games out there. While I did have some fun with it, there was just way too much frustration with even basic elements that shouldn’t be as difficult to understand as they were.