Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[Darkette]

Very nice checklist, probably the only one I’ll ever reply to. I’m glad you seem to be enjoying vermintide, I’ve yet to miss Floris streaming it for me so I’m always up to date on your progress! You can always ask something when you’re playing and I’ll answer it in the stream to the best of my knowledge. 
 

You all seem to be improving in Legend now which is really good. Doing playthroughs from recruit-legend is totally not worth it. I’d say 2 including legend is enough. Champion won’t prepare you for legend at all since wave frequency and damage makes all the difference, so veteran or recruit is a good start just to know how to generally play. I’ll hop in tomorrow when you guys play, maybe you can finish the Ubersreik DLC!
 

Fyi; when you jump into the legend miscs, I recommend the easier ones first like Athel Yenlui. We’d generally do a run on recruit first so we know how the trophy works for legend, it helps quite a lot with the not so obvious requirements. Also don’t be too daunted by the weaves scaling to cata 2. Your max power will be higher, like over 700 iirc. The early cata 1 weaves are more like legend difficulty for the base game.
 

Enjoy the slaying!

[Arcesius]

23 hours ago, ZoutjeNL said:

Good job on the End is Nigh! Looking forward to your review. Also well done on your progress on Divinity that game is indeed packed with content... it might be a little too slow for me but I see the appeal. Also Vermintide looks interesting... another ultra rare is it just grindy or hard too? Hard is basically your second name so I mean... you love challenge

 

Thanks man! I see that you are also playing one of Edmunds games... Man, how often have I thought about going for Isaac.. Hope you enjoy it! 

 

As for Vermintide... it is not grindy at all other than getting all characters to lv 30. There were 2 weeks of 3x XP though, so that saved us 20 hours of grinding  And while we are still learning the game, it is really way more complex than I thought going in... Watching gameplay I had the impression that you just mindlessly slay hordes of enemies, but damn it's sooo much more than that! Definitely rather skill-intensive, requires a good party of 4 to get most trophies, and incredibly fun... 

 

 

22 hours ago, KN_Kirai said:

Yes, the problem with this matter is that it's too much generalized and people tend to not condone the act even for the stupidest things which really aren't worth discussing, and the result is people telling each other off on how they play games.

 

19 hours ago, Mori said:

When there's one thing I learned through the years on PSNP, then it is to not waste your time on trying to convince people on anything by arguing with them. People wont change as long as they have the feeling they need to defend themselves (or their opinion).

 

How many threads were created about leaderboards, easy plats, people using glitches etc. How many of them had an everlasting impact or effect on anyone? These threads just serve one purpose, seeking validation for ones own opinion. Anyone who disagrees just sucks ass and is [insert fancy namecalling].

 

That is absolutely true. Judging a strangers choices just doesn't make much sense to me. How can I assume to know why a person I've never met chooses to play what they play? Who am I to state that Leaderboards are objectively shit? I mean, all I can say is that I personally don't care for them, that I choose to avoid Rata games because I don't play primarily for my trophy count, but I would never state that my view is what should give this hobby any objective value. 

 

Still, you go into any such discussion stating your views and opinions, and you have some people agreeing with you, and many more just putting you off as an elitist gatekeeper. Well fuck off then, I just stay away from those discussions now. Mostly at least   

 

 

Quote

I still believe that this checklist is one of the best things on PSNP. Embracing and overcoming the challenge is much more powerful and convincing than arguing about the same topics for the 100th time. It's no coincidence that this checklist is among the most popular on PSNP.

 

First of all: ❤️

 

Secondly, that's of course how I feel personally as well, but it's also the reason why this checklist attracts the people it attrackts. All of you contributing here, stating your opinions, discussing games here.. you all share certain aspects of what you enjoy in this hobby with me and with each other.. you are either completionists, like to challenge yourselves, share a certain (unhealthy) love for indie titles, etc... If you go read other checklists, there are plenty of other users lurking and contributing there as well that probably check on this list and don't find anything that interests them personally... 

 

And to be honest, when I started this list, I would never have thought, and never dared to hope that it would be eventually so well received and that it would really enable me to find such great people  And meanwhile this checklist has a different meaning to me personally than it did initially. It is more than just a place where I write reviews and updates.. it is my personal space on this forum where I can talk about games with people that appreciate similar aspects of this hobby. 

 

I should probably rename the checklist to "Arcesius' Hideout" or something  

 

 

18 hours ago, Darkette said:

Very nice checklist, probably the only one I’ll ever reply to. I’m glad you seem to be enjoying vermintide, I’ve yet to miss Floris streaming it for me so I’m always up to date on your progress! You can always ask something when you’re playing and I’ll answer it in the stream to the best of my knowledge. 
 

You all seem to be improving in Legend now which is really good. Doing playthroughs from recruit-legend is totally not worth it. I’d say 2 including legend is enough. Champion won’t prepare you for legend at all since wave frequency and damage makes all the difference, so veteran or recruit is a good start just to know how to generally play. I’ll hop in tomorrow when you guys play, maybe you can finish the Ubersreik DLC!

 

Man, thanks a ton! Really appreciate the nice words  

 

As for the streams.. Yeah, I can hear Floris type away at his keyboard, I always assume he's chatting with you  You already helped us out during the session on a couple of occasions, so thanks a lot! 

 

The goal for today is probably to do Weaves 16-20 and then finish the Ubersreik DLC... Not sure what we will do after that, but improving in Legend definitely is making the game even more fun than it was before.. Once we get to the main game challenges, we might need to ask for your advice on which ones to do first! 

 

One thing that we are not entirely sure about.. I read that when the Season ends, only the progress from Weaves 41+ is reset (as they are shuffled), but 1-40 stay the same... that means that we can do weaves 1-40 without having to be afraid that the season will end before we manage to do all 80, right? Do you know anything about this?

Edited November 27, 2020 by Arcesius

[Darkette]

14 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 One thing that we are not entirely sure about.. I read that when the Season ends, only the progress from Weaves 41+ is reset (as they are shuffled), but 1-40 stay the same... that means that we can do weaves 1-40 without having to be afraid that the season will end before we manage to do all 80, right? Do you know anything about this?

The original plan FS had in mind was to reset all your essence/athanor level and gear etc, as well as a full wipe of the weave leaderboards. They got a lot of heat about that and now it’s just as you said, a reshuffle after 40. That does mean you should be safe after the reset but it also means 41-80 will be weaves you haven’t seen before. Usually 1-40 is the exact same as 41-80 and 81-120 etc, so you’ll only see the more difficult version of that if you play the new season after 40. I think this season has only been around for a month on consoles though, but their consistency is awful, it can be from 3.5 to 5.5 months long. 
 

I think there shouldn’t be many overtuned weaves now, the crashing has certainly been fixed at least. Back when we did it in season 1, if a combination of 2 gunners or flame rats shot at once then it’d be a guaranteed blue screen. It made things a lot more awkward. :l You can use this spreadsheet to see your weave layout for when season 4 releases If you like. It’s not as useful since they renamed the end arenas into something more vague, but it gives you an idea. 
 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w_yNcXgwttM6mepgOYBsGJeR6jW76bN4A_IyiHhsLzc/htmlview#

 

[Arcesius]

So guys, after months and months, after so many Saturday evenings devoted to this game, after many conversations, beers (or whatever @Mori is drinking all the time... ), laughs... Divinity: Original Sin 2 is complete!  What an absolute monster of a game, I'm still speechless... ?

The good thing is that I still have some time to process everything and put my thoughts together in a review, since there is still one other review due first! 

 

 

 #76 - The End is Nigh

 

 

The Pitch

Take on the role of a lonely cancerous blob and put your platforming skills to the test with this fantastic 2D platformer devoid of color and filled with sadness and depressing topics by the sadistic genious mastermind that is Mr. Edmund McMillen. 

 

100% Enjoyment

 

100% Challenge

 

The Best

Imagine yourself in a post-apocalyptic world, everything you have left is a single video game, and the cartridge breaks.. What would you do? Go out and make a new friend, of course! That's what The End is Nigh (henceforth TEiN) is about, and it is very, very good. Only "making" a new friend is taken literally here... Your initial goal is to find a Heart, Head and Body, and play Dr. Frankenstein. 

 

Look, my new friend hanging there!

 

Usually, the plot is not a very crucial aspect in these types of games. For TEiN, Edmund himself stated in an interview that he created this game during the darkest phase of his life, and it shows. The topics are very dark in this game... Collectibles are tumors (your goal is to become more and more cancerous), some sort of expanding goo is called "Mother", you have cartridges named after the stages of grief, and everything is set in a very dark, colorless tone.

 

Why am I mentioning this in the "The Best" section? Because in this specific case, I think that the topics TEiN deals with actually help make the game what it is. TEiN has a very unique, very dark but recognizable style, and the underlying topics really help set the tone. The difficulty of the game really goes well with the atmosphere, and I believe that the game wouldn't have been equally good if you would keep the gameplay intact but instead play as a colorful marshmellow collecting sprinkles in a rainbow-themed environment. 

 

      

 

 

Alright, I've mentioned gameplay now, so let's talk about it and the level design in this game. And this is going to be the first time I make the obvious comparison to Super Meat Boy (SMB). Let's start with level design.

 

This. Is. Amazing. Edmund outdid himself when designing this game. TEiN starts out easy enough, but there is still plenty of room for error even in the tutorial world. I actually had my girlfriend run through the first world to see how someone with - how do I put this... - moderate gaming skills (?) would perform, and she managed to clear 19/20 screens without help (it took a good amount of time, she died a lot, and she was close to giving up multiple times... and also asked me repeatedly why the hell I enjoy playing such games...). But she learned most mechanics without me having to tell her anything. That's good, intuitive level design right there. 

 

Going further, this game borrows plenty of ideas from SMB and Super Mario. You have Chain Chomp-like enemies (chained dogs), turrets that continuously shoot you on sight, laser beams, moving platforms, conveyor belts... and of course, more spikes than you could ever need ? and the difficulty seems to increase further and further, but in such a way that it is never really noticeable.. That is until you assemble your friend and open up a new set of levels... There you have limited lives (as many as tumors you collected), culminating in a non-save-scummable set of screens that are far harder than anything in the main game. It's, simply put, genious... You learn how to play without pressure, with a steadily increasing difficulty curve. Once you are ready, you lose the safety net of being able to make as many mistakes as you want. And after coming that far, conquering that last set of screens feels amazing! 

 

Not only that, but each world has very well hidden secrets to find. The hardest challenges in each world are often platforming gauntlets leading to those collectibles. So players that want to just casually play through the game can do so, while completionists need to find and complete far harder tasks. 

 

Now, while TEiN and SMB share a lot of ideas, the gameplay mechanics and emphasis are very, very different. SMB is all about speed, about completing levels quickly (I mean, you unlock the Dark version of each level by completing the Light version under a certain time), and Meat Boy controls accordingly. You have wall-jumps, you can sprint, and the levels are designed to be speedrun. Not so with TEiN. Here, the pace is not quite as high. Ash (the blob) cannot sprint, it cannot wall-jump. But what it can do is hang from edges. It sounds trivial, but it enables a completely different gameplay experience. Instead of rushing, you might be hanging from a ledge of a collapsing building, and need to jump to the next part at the right time (patience, my friend, patience!). There are water levels, and in water you move even slower, but your enemies might not (stupid fish), so you cannot outpace them, you need to learn how to manipulate their AI. It's these kind of design decisions that make this game feel great and unique to play. And I loved it. ?

 

Overall, putting all of the above together, TEiN is a brilliant game, and I dare even say that it is the best platformer I've ever played ?

 

The Worst

If I would not care about trophies, I don't think I would find anything to talk about in this section. But since I do, I have to mention the Super Mega Cart (SMC). You see, in TEiN, there are retro-style platforming challenges in the form of Cartridges. You collect those in the main game, and once collected, you can play it on the console in the starting area. Most cartridges are actually pretty fun, and come with certain challenges attached to them that I will touch upon in the next section. 

 

But one specific cartridge, the aforementioned SMC, can go suck an egg. It is simply a compilation of 9 cartridges with 10 screens each, and additional 10 screens specific to the SMC. That's 100 screens that need to be completed in succession and with limited lives. Now, initially, even beating the damn thing is not the easiest task. But for one of the trophies you need to complete all challenges for all cartridges. In this specific case, there are two that are particularly painful. Completing all 100 screens dying at most 8 times (not that bad after a bit of practice... I think I died 4 or 5 times in my successful attempt), and completing all 100 screens with 40 lives WHILE COLLECTING ALL 1000 RINGS. 

 

What a giant pain in the ass that was!! ? I lost track of how long this took me, but it must have been at least 8-10 hours of practice, run attempts, cursing and venting to Mori about how fucking boring this challenge is. 

Listen, there are far harder challenges in the Steam version (more on this later), but I have to mention this here since it is literally the only challenge I didin't have fun with. 

 

If you want to watch my run (at least partially, since it is like 45 minutes long), here is a video in the spoiler-tag: 

 

Spoiler

 

 

The Challenge

I gotta be very honest here... I underestimated this game. Before starting it, I thought on several occasions "I will quickly do TEiN first", for example shortly before doing Trials Fusion. That "quickly" turned into roughly 50 hours of skill-intensive platforming challenges. This game is definitely not a walk in a post-apocalyptic park. 

 

Now, I am not even talking about trophies, I'm talking about the challenge of a casual first playthrough. I loved the difficulty, it made the game feel exciting to master, but Edmund was right when he himself said that this is his hardest game. This is one typical screen in the harder cartridges, just as an example (with the route marked in red): 

 

 

You cannot stay in the gas clouds for too long or you die... keep moving!

 

Now, the hardest challenges are usually found when going for certain trophies, and it's no different here. First things first though. As mentioned above, on Steam, getting 100% is way, WAY harder than getting the SMB platinum. I'm not exaggerating, the achievement list is absolutely insane. 

On consoles though, the hardest challenges are probably on par with Zombie / Girl Boy from SMB, but Impossible Boy is harder than anything TEiN throws at you. 

 

The hardest challenge definitely is the SMC mentioned above. The second hardest challenge is a no-death run. In SMB your no-death runs are 20 screens long and you can determine the order yourself (making them way easier than with a fixed order). Here, the hardest no-death run is 32 screens long which need to be completed in a given order. It's not the most difficult challenge ever, but definitely requires some practice. 

Here is my run, in case you are intersted:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

And while the SMC kinda annoyed me in the end, it didn't diminish the fun that I had with TEiN. This is a fantastic platformer, and more people should play it. Fantastic gameplay, top-notch level design and a difficulty curve that makes playing this game incredibly satisfying.   
 

Edited December 11, 2020 by Arcesius

[Arcesius]

So, while I wait for the required motivation to write a review about Divinity: Original Sin 2, I want to write a bit about Warhammer: Vermintide 2. Why? Because it's all I wanna play at the moment, and since I can only play twice a week in coop, here we are ?

 

So, Vermintide 2... I'll be perfectly honest here. I had no idea what kind of game I was getting myself into. Mori asked already sometime in the first half of the year if I was up for it, but after watching some gameplay I wasn't really interested... It was then Floriiss who showed interest in the game so I finally decided to join him, Mori and Koro (since a group of 4 is required to tackle this ginormous monster of a game). 

 

And let me tell you.. I have never been this glad to have started something without being 100% sure it's my thing. This is, without a doubt, and without exaggeration, the best coop game I have played. Ever. It's complex, it's challenging, I love the setting, the gameplay (more specifically, the combat) feels visceral, brutal and amazing... And it requires very good teamwork, which is something that many other coop games I have tried are lacking. This last aspect is actually the reason why I enjoyed Remnant: From the Ashes so much.. good communication was often very important, and kept your head in the game. In Vermintide 2, team play is everything. You play egoistically and the run is pretty much over. 

 

So, what are we currently doing? Well, after finishing all missions and leveling all characters to lv. 30, we started cleaning up the DLCs. While doing so, we also started to play Weaves. Those are late-game DLC content that differ from the main game in many ways. In particular, each weave-mission is timed, the enemy spawns are hard-coded (they are timer-based but random in the main game), and each weave has a specific objective and modifier. Those modifiers is what make this game-mode unique... Enemies might be invisible and take reduced damage until they are close enough, or all attacks (from yourself and from the enemies) might deal fire-damage, or lightning might strike in regular intervals, damaging both enemies and the players, etc... There are eight such modifiers in total, and five weaves with each modifier for a total of 40 unique weaves with increasing enemy damage output and difficulty. 

 

We actually just finished clearing weaves 1-40 yesterday... So, yay? Done? Well, not quite.. ? 

Weaves 41-80 are basically the same as 1-40 but harder, set to be on Cataclysm and Cataclysm 2 difficulty, with more punishing modifier parameters and with constantly increasing enemy damage output. Thing is, once the season ends (and who knows when that is.. apparently the consistency with season length is non-existent), weave-progress resets. So to earn the trophy for completing the first 80 weaves, you need to do them within the same season. And that's what we are going for. 

 

I told you before, this group learns by repeatedly running into the thickest concrete wall around... Hardest content out of the way asap! ? I love it. 

 

As for my role, I started out playing a front-line career. But, and this is not only the case in this game, I am usually not the most careful of players. Unfortunately, in this game, being careless is pretty much equivalent to being dead, as 1-2 hits from an elite enemy, or overlooking enemies in your back while trying to thin out a giant horde of infantry minions in front of you is enough to down any player. Thus, I switched roles and am currently playing a tankier character that goes by the name of Bardin. Here is my beautiful Dwarf, rocking his 2-handed hammer: 

 

 

Personally I feel like this character and class is fitting my playstyle way better, so I'll stick to it for the remaining weaves at least. I will also be recording our gameplay from weaves 41-80 and probably put all of the same modifier into a single video. Hopefully it be be entertaining to watch! 

 

 

 

So yeah... that's it. I started practicing Pier Solar again in small bursts, I started playing Crypt of the NecroDancer again (not going very well, getting back into Aria after such a long break is... tough), and I started playing Enter the Gungeon. But I... don't really like it.. ? And I don't understand why. I think part of it has to do with me not wanting to play anything that isn't Vermintide 2 right now, but the game just doesn't make me feel excited. I can't really explain what it is, but I'm not really sure if I really want to do this game (for some reason I haven't popped any trophies yet...). The game sure looks like I should enjoy it, but it just doesn't click.. Maybe I need to give it more time. 

 

If you read all of the above: Sorry for what must be a very confusing post ? 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Arcesius

[Grotz99]

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

If you read all of the above: Sorry for what must be a very confusing post  

Played Vermintide 2 on PC and it is a great coop game, best if you stick to the same group. Unfortunately, my friends fell off that game and I haven't been motivated to go back. I'm going to try to convince my console playing friend to play it on PS4 perhaps.

[Arcesius]

An entire month without an update, mhm? Damn, you could think that having holidays would grant me more time, but it's actually quite the opposite... Despite most things being closed here (and we are entering our first proper lockdown come Monday), it is still difficult to find time to properly take care of my checklist... 

 

There is also not terribly much to update, either... but let's still get into it: 

 

Nioh 2 

I completed the third and last DLC, and am done with this game for good. With over 200h played, I think the money spent on pre-ordering the deluxe edition was money well spent ? And somehow I spent longer with this game than with the original Nioh, despite not having to play every single mission on NG+2... 

 

The third DLC was actually pretty good, I definitely liked it more than the second one. There were two missions that drove me crazy though, especially a 30 minute gauntlet, "Against all Corners". My build just couldn't handle that mission... So I completed NG+3 to unlock the true endgame content, the "Underworld" in NG+4 (what used to be the "Abyss" in Nioh) and upgrade my gear to a ridiculous degree... Ethereal 190+40 gear, let's goooo! ?

 

Can you believe that I completed NG+3 solo without dying once? Even beat the final boss no problem, but still couldn't complete Against all Corners on NG+2? Talk about the DLC being a difficulty spike, mhm? ?

 

Anyways... It looks like a Nioh 3 is not planned, but I can't say that I'm sad about it. The two released games are amazing, but I don't wanna see that cow being milked to death. 

 

 

Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Still going strong, still having a blast. But progress is slowing down. With 64/80 weaves completed, we have reached the Cataclysm 2 content and have "only" 16 weaves to go! 

 

And while a lot of fun, the balance seems off at times... There are weaves that we have completed in 1-2 attempts, even Cata and Cata 2 weaves, but there were also a couple so insane that we needed 4-5 hours to clear. It can be draining, that's for sure. On the other hand, I'm really glad that our group seems to be incredibly determined. No thoughts of quitting, no "let's do something else". Everybody is putting in the time and the work, and that definitely can't be taken for granted! 

 

We have been recording the weaves (with voice) since 41, and I personally have always put the 5 with the same modifier into a single video. I have been playing either the Ironbreaker or the Grail Knight, depending on what was needed. Here is the playlist with the ones I've uploaded so far!

 

 

From those uploaded, 56 and 60 have been the hardest BY FAR... which I think you can gather from our reaction after completing the weave  

 

With 2 sessions a week this might still take a while, but the end is in sight! 

 

 

Descenders

I know I mentioned that I was going to do Enter the Gungeon next... but I played the game for a bit and I just don't like it... ? Fortunately, I didn't pop a trophy, so I'm skipping the game for now. 

Instead, I started Descenders! A rogue-lite mountain biking game by the developers of Action Henk! ? Aaaaand.. the game is alright I'm having fun with it, but it is a bit clunky and becomes a bit samey after a while... but it can be completed in around 30 hours, so it's not too bad. I'm actually writing a guide for it.  

 

Unfortunately, there are a couple of trophies that are unobtainable on the latest patch on PS4, so I reverted to version 1.0 and got a couple of those out of the way... but I also contacted the developers and they are now aware of the issue and will release a patch relatively soon (or so they have told me), so I'm playing on the latest patch again just because there are daily quests that need to be completed, and for those I need to play online, which I can't do on 1.0... 

 

 

Anyways, that's it for me so far... I know I still have to write the Divinity 2 review, and I'm going to soon, I promise! ?

 

 

Oh, one last thing... together with @Mori and @Copanele, we are hosting the new UR-Event for 2021, with no sign-up deadlines and such. But in contrast to last year, this one also has a philanthropic aspect, and by completing games the participants raise money that will be donated to two organizations by the end of the year. 

So, consider signing up for the event!  

Edited January 14, 2021 by Arcesius

[Arcesius]

Alright, let’s not drag this out any longer… Divinity: Original Sin 2, you shall be reviewed!

 

 #77 - Divinity: Original Sin 2

 

 

 

The Pitch

Do whatever the hell you want in this incredibly open, fully packed and deceivingly complex isometric RPG, be it poisoning quest-givers, framing your comrades for murder, or stabbing them all in the back as you become the new Divine!

 

 

100% Enjoyment

 

100% Challenge

 

 

[Before going into the three usual sections, I need to write a bit more generally about my overall experience with this game. As you can tell from the trophy timestamps, it was quite a long journey… And a journey I went on with @Mori. Saturday after Saturday, we would make yet another small step towards our destination, this being the first coop game we tackled together after my son was born.

 

As Mori himself put it best, It was a fantastic journey. The fact we played it over a span of 7 months made the finale even more impactful, [...] made the journey really feel like one.

 

This game is something else. It is a game I will not forget that easily, and that for many reasons. It is a game that showed me what this medium has to offer in terms of player freedom, unique content, convoluted but interesting plots,... No other game that I've ever played so far has left me with such a feeling of incredulity, and no other game has left me quite as speechless once I reached the end. In fact, this is a review that I've been postponing simply because whatever I write, it won't make the game justic. But waiting won't make me a better writer, either, so here we are  

 

And with this unusual paragraph out of the way, one that hopefully shows a bit how I feel about this game, let's discuss the game in our well-known structure!]

 

 

The Best

Where to start… Alright, this game is massive. And usually, when thinking about a massive RPG what comes to mind? The grind… present in almost every game in the genre. Well, what if I start by telling you that you don’t only don’t need to grind in Divinity, but that you CAN’t grind? Yep, that’s right… Enemies don’t respawn, quests are non-repeatable, NPCs stay dead once killed… the overall XP-pool is finite, and it is the order in which you tackle things that decides how much of that XP you actually get. 

 

How is this something positive? Well, simple.. this game being massive doesn’t mean that it is a huge grind. It means that it’s packed with unique, interesting and varied content, and it is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in a game from this genre.

 

 

And that brings me to the next point… player freedom. And not the freedom to decide in which order you tackle things resulting in the same outcome, but really the freedom to make choices that actually have a deep impact in further actions / interactions / situations down the line, and that might even lock you out of certain quests.

 

One small example.. We had a cast of four characters, Fane, Lhose, Red Prince and Ifan Ben-Mezd. Besides regular objectives and side missions, each character has its own questline that you can progress.

 

So at some point in Act III, we found one of the main antagonists, Alexander, who we had fought before but in this case would leave us alone. In theory, you get to this point, speak with Alexander, get a couple of quests offered and, once everything is done and you’ve gotten the XP, you go your separate ways only to meet Alexander at some point further down the line.

But this is not what happened to us. After talking to Alexander, Ifan approached us (Fane) and asked if he could talk to Alexander as well.

• “Well sure Ifan, go ahead and tal..”
• [Narrator: Ifan approaches Alexander and stabs him 7 times in the stomach. Alexander screams in agony and falls dead to the ground]
• “For fucks sake, Ifan, what’s wrong with you?? ?”

Seriously, we were like "..... what?....". But it makes sense... Ifan’s personal quest involved assassinating Alexander, so he did. No quests, no rewards, no (un)friendly banter… One of the main antagonists was just assassinated by one of your own… Amazing  

 

That’s only a very small example of things that might or migh not happen depending on many variables. We could have kept Ifan from speaking to Alexander, or not have him with us at all, or just not progress his own quest… And after witnessing many and many such actions and situations that only happened as consequence of many choices we had taken up to that point, I really feel like there would be so incredibly many interactions and consequences to witness that just didn’t happen in either of our two playthroughs.

 

There are so many more such situations that I can think of... just wow. 

 

 

The Worst

I really can’t think of any gameplay-related aspect that would be worth mentioning here… ? But there is a technical one that was a bit frustrating, and it’s related to trophies.

 

As mentioned above, this game is incredible in coop. But of course, we also want to get the game to 100%, because of course we want to. Now, there seems to be some problems with trophies unlocking in coop, and I’m not talking about Misc-trophies (which you could argue should only unlock for the player fulfilling the requirements). We’ve had problems with Misc-trophies, Story-related trophies, Boss-related trophies… but with no recognizable pattern.

 

However, we noticed that if the client joined the game through the lobby, instead of accepting an invitation by the host, this issue would be mostly mitigated.

 

In the end, we still managed to get all trophies in 2 playthroughs (1 blind, one following a guide) with only a handful of reloads for both players to get a specific trophy. But it soured the experience from the perspective of a trophy hunter, that’s for sure. 

 

So yes, this small inconvenience is the worst thing I could find about this game… already says a lot, doesn’t it?  A pity though... A game so perfect for coop shouldn't have any issues regarding coop-aspects, be it connectivity, gameplay or, in this case, trophies. 

 

 

P.S. The loading screens are ridiculous as well, but given the sheer amount of content that is available without having to go through another loading screen, it’s completely understandable.

 

 

The Challenge

To be honest, getting 100% in this game would be an incredibly overwhelming task, if not for the incredible guide found on this page. I can’t even begin to imagine what it took to write such a guide, and I’ll eat a broom if it doesn’t win an award this year.

 

As for our blind playthrough, the challenge for us changed over time. We did our first playthrough on Classic difficulty, and initially our asses would get kicked constantly. A handful of small, weak enemies would already pose a challenge in battle. But once more this is due to the incredible depth and complexity of the unique battle system in this game. It’s turn-based, but it’s unlike any battle system I have ever seen in a game. You can use positioning to your advantage or disadvantage, you can use the environment and elements to a great effect (cast rain on a burning surface and it generates smoke, blinding everything. Cast Ice on a bloody surface and it freezes, making your enemies slip and miss a turn, etc...). And of course we first needed to get used to how everything works, understand how each of our characters should be played (or rather, how to play, build and optimize the builds we were going for), and how to make sure we would put ourselves at a tactical advantage before engaging with anything or anyone (people seem to be offended rather easily in Rivellon, so combat is always close ?).

 

 

That being said, once we understood the most crucial aspects (took a while..), we started feeling more confident in approaching different situations.

 

The second playthrough on the hardest difficulty and with perma-death felt really relatively easy thanks to the aforementioned guide. By going out of your way to increase your XP-gains by making sure to do all actions in a specific order (and killing everyone that isn't of use to you anymore ?) you can be pretty OP in no time. I actually did this playthrough alone, as it is easier to follow a written guide on your own. It took a while of course, but it never felt like a challenge at all.

 

It was definitely funny to compare our stats in our blind playthrough, and the overly optimized stats from following the guide… what a difference  

 

 

 

Alright, it took a while for me to finally decide to put my thoughts together on this one. It was a difficult game to really try to describe and organize my thoughts, but I'm glad to have finally done so  

 

Meanwhile, I also finished Descenders, a game for which I'm almost done with writing a Trophy Guide for and that should be much easier for me to review, and we are getting pretty close to getting Warhammer: Vermintide 2 to 100%! Only the misc-trophies in the base game are still missing, we'll see how long those take!

 

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Arcesius

[AJ_Radio]

Divinity: Original Sin 2 looks great @Arcesius, like a superior Diablo III and Baldur's Gate in one. Just don't know if I'll have time to get around to it, seeing how long the game is.

[OverlordOfRacing]

Such an awesome thread! Loving all the completion, great work

[Baker]

Are you running out of games in your backlog? Dragon’s Crown is on sale again ?.

[Arcesius]

On 29.1.2021 at 3:53 AM, Spaz said:

Divinity: Original Sin 2 looks great @Arcesius, like a superior Diablo III and Baldur's Gate in one. Just don't know if I'll have time to get around to it, seeing how long the game is.

 

It is a fantastic game for sure... I didn't know what to expect (except that everytime I saw any comment about this game it was extremely positive), and I always love when I go blind into a game just to find something this amazing. 

 

Just for reference.. our blind playthrough took roughly 80-90 hours, but we needed around 160 hours for the platinum with a second playthrough. So yeah, it's a bit lengthy, and definitely a game that you shouldn't play if you are in a rush. It is incredibly open and there are tons of meaningful conversations worth following. I wouldn't play it if you don't want to take your sweet time with it. I also wouldn't do a first playthrough following a guide  

 

 

On 29.1.2021 at 5:03 AM, OverlordOfRacing said:

Such an awesome thread! Loving all the completion, great work

 

Thanks man! Appreciate it  Even if I don't have as much time, I still try to update this thread on a regular basis. Some great people here! 

 

 

On 29.1.2021 at 5:09 AM, BB-BakkerJ said:

Are you running out of games in your backlog? Dragon’s Crown is on sale again .

 

Hahaha I wished ? and I actually saw it again, but I think it's still a pass ?

 

However, now that you mention my backlog... shall we have a look? 

 

 

This is my current backlog... I don't want to actually know how many hours it will take to complete these games ? There are some PS+ games I didn't add, such as Absolver and Dirt Rally 2.0, since I don't think I will ever get to those so I'm not including them. The games in this picture are the ones that I think I will definitely go for at some point. The last 4 games are still on my wishlist though, but I'm getting them the next time they go on sale... You can usually get Bleed and Bleed 2 for 5€ in a bundle... The regular price for the bundle is 30€ ? 

 

Oh, and Risk of Rain 2 is missing.. damn I forgot to add that one ?

 

Now... We should get Warhammer: Vermintide 2 to 100% this weekend! ? That's right, we only have 4 Misc Trophies left, and we should be able to get those done in one session. Our group will be taking a break before tackling Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, so we might get Broforce, Trine 3 and Trine 4 done in the meantime. 

 

As for single player games... I'm currently going for Neon Abyss, a pretty fun and stylish roguelite that I'm enjoying quite a bit, and will probably follow that up with 10 Second Ninja X, since it's a game I included in Tier 1 of our UR event. I already completed all missions in the first 9 levels of Badland, and I have been feeling like going for that game soon... But I also want to do Splasher rather sooner than later. I guess we'll see what I feel like when I actually have to choose my next game ?

 

 

I submitted my guide for Descenders, so I will try to write my review this week  

Edited February 3, 2021 by Arcesius

[AJ_Radio]

It's been a long time since I played Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite so I can't provide you any tips for their trophies.

 

Only game on your backlog I've completed is 10 Second Ninja X. It's not a bad platformer, it was done on a small budget as most indie games are but I feel it'll be worth your while. A bit better than Pumped BMX+ in my opinion.

[Eagle]

2 hours ago, Arcesius said:

However, now that you mention my backlog... shall we have a look? 

 

 

How did you do that thing to see your backlog? ? Is it something premium-only or something along these lines?

 

Also, could Divinity be played solo? Your review interested me very much in getting it on the future, but I don't have any friendos to play it with, LOL.

[Arcesius]

38 minutes ago, BRKs_Eagle said:

How did you do that thing to see your backlog?  Is it something premium-only or something along these lines?

 

Also, could Divinity be played solo? Your review interested me very much in getting it on the future, but I don't have any friendos to play it with, LOL.

 

I created a custom list and added the games to it You need to use @HusKy's self-implemented PSNP+ add-on that you can find here! It's a fantastic add-on that keeps getting constant support. I mostly use it for custom lists, but there are also features regarding boosting sessions, guides, etc... 

 

As for Divinity... Absolutely. You can control up to 4 characters, and if you play with other people you can assign them one or multiple characters to control. I could recommend that game even if you were going to play it solo, I don't think there is much that you would be missing by doing it alone other than the conversations with your coop partner  Sure, you won't be able to split up and go to different places at the same time (though you can split up your party), but that doesn't make the game less good. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Arcesius

[Arcesius]

Buff, this has been a stressful couple of weeks… ?  And I don’t know guys. I enjoy writing these reviews, but even with the new format (that should make it easier to just put these out quickly…), I’m still struggling to keep up! (Although I finish games at a snail’s pace, so I shouldn’t have to struggle...) I have three reviews pending, and two games that I will probably finish within a weeks time: The Surge 2 and Broforce.

 

I have been thinking about simply closing my thread, but I cannot bring myself to do so… But I might need to approach things a bit less ambitiously in the future, I dunno ?

 

Anyways, here are my thoughts on Descenders! A game you have probably never heard of and for which for some reason and despite lacking the time to do so, I decided to write a Trophy Guide for (has been submitted already a couple of weeks ago).

 

 

 #78 - Descenders

 

 

 

The Pitch

Take your mountain bike out for a spin through procedurally generated tracks, riding downhill at adrenaline-inducing speeds or performing head-spinning stunts, and become the next True Descender by mastering this unique rogue-like!

 

 

100% Enjoyment

 

100% Challenge

 

 

The Best

This is a weird one… Because what I really like best about this game is the concept and everything surrounding it. A unique concept - mountain biking game with procedural track generation - , tons of unlockable cosmetic items (no MTX, fortunately), three different teams to compete for (they even made three closed groups within the Descenders discord, one for each team), an active community and responsive devs, daily tasks that do give you some objectives to aim for each day, etc… ?

 

I mean, look at me rocking some bananas ?:

 

 

The ideas are great, and there is a lot of fun to be had with Descenders depending on what your goals are within the game. Unfortunately, from the perspective of a player that not only wants to have fun with the game but also aim for the plat, some poor decisions were made, but more on that later.

 

Anyways, there are a lot of good ideas here, but there is nothing that went me go “wow”. Which is why the negative aspects actually were quite noticeable this time around.

 

 

The Worst

This might sound strange, but I think it was a poor decision to make this game a rogue-like. Think about it though. A great rogue-like/lite has thrilling gameplay that goes well with or is even made better by the game being a rogue-like.

 

In Descenders, it’s actually the opposite: The fact the game is a rogue-like makes the game worse. And I don’t mean the procedural generation of tracks, which is great, but the limited lives.

 

It’s difficult to explain what I mean, but I’ll try. ? Take an example of a good rogue-like… say, Dead Cells, a genius 2D-rogue-lite platformer with incredibly satisfying combat. Now, the fact that the game is a rogue-lite might make you approach everything more carefully, but the game also incentivises not taking too long to finish stages, for example by introducing timed doors with great rewards that will be shut off for good if you don’t reach them in time. On higher difficulties, enemies will start following you around across the map, so that you are basically forced to deal with them instead of rushing to the end, but at the same time maps are full of upgrades, weapons and collectibles, so that you are forced to take risks to have a chance at getting a good build and finishing a run, etc…

Something similar applies to other games such as Crypt of the NecroDancer, the survival mode in Remnant: From the Ashes or Risk of Rain 2. But instead of being rewarded for finishing the levels fast, you are instead punished for taking too long (subtle difference): If a song ends in Crypt of the NecroDancer, you are forced into a tiny arena with a Mini-Boss and three enemies. In Remnant: From the Ashes and Risk of Rain 2, the difficulty keeps increasing as time passes, so that you need to find a good balance between finishing a level, and exploring to find good gear and upgrades. 

 

Descenders is a rogue-like for the sake of being a rogue-like, with neither rewards nor punishment. There are no rewards for finishing levels quickly, there are no power-ups or helpful items scattered across the single tracks, there is no real incentive to perform stunts and farm REP during a run… Sure, you unlock crew-members the more REP you earn, but they don’t really have that big of an impact on the run.... 

The consequence? For the best chances at finishing a run, you start riding slowly. You stop performing neck-breaking stunts. You avoid as many jumps as possible… And suddenly you are playing the game in a way that is absolutely no fun whatsoever ? ?

 

 

The Challenge

Descenders is a fairly straightforward game in terms of gameplay, but requires a bit of getting used to its physics and controls. At the beginning I couldn’t for the life of me keep my bike straight when approaching a Boss-Jump ?

 

But once you get more consistent and have the required finesse it takes to make slight adjustments to the bike, it’s GG. However, we again face the “problem” of the game being a rogue-like. If you want to simply finish a run, just ride slowly and avoid obstacles / jumps as much as possible. You won’t find this to be challenging at all, but you will probably be bored pretty quickly, too.

 

And thing is… If you want to get the platinum, you will pretty much have to play the boring way. There are trophies for reaching and finishing a secret world (Volcano) and a trophy for completing an entire run without a single fault that would be really difficult if you needed to be fast and reckless. But since you don’t, they aren’t… ?

 

 

 

The next review will be for Warhammer: Vermintide 2… One of my favorite games of the last couple of years and a game so complex that I don’t know how the hell I am supposed to write anything about it ?

Edited March 15, 2021 by Arcesius

[Together_Comic]

3 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Buff, this has been a stressful couple of weeks…   And I don’t know guys. I enjoy writing these reviews, but even with the new format (that should make it easier to just put these out quickly…), I’m still struggling to keep up! (Although I finish games at a snail’s pace, so I shouldn’t have to struggle...) I have three reviews pending, and two games that I will probably finish within a weeks time: The Surge 2 and Broforce.

 

I have been thinking about simply closing my thread, but I cannot bring myself to do so… But I might need to approach things a bit less ambitiously in the future, I dunno 

 

For what it's worth, I really enjoy reading your reviews of all the games that you play.  I think that you do it in a really neat and unique way from others that I read. Not to mention, you always find a way to add stuff to my completely to long back log of games that I want to play.  ??.  Definitely understand that things get in the way though, and its tough to want to spend what seems like already limited free time on writing up reviews, not to mention trying to get them out in a timely fashion.  Either way, congrats on the platinum.  

 

~TC 

[Stardroid]

Hey, just wanted to express that I hope you are doing well and I love you x

[Grotz99]

5 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Buff, this has been a stressful couple of weeks…   And I don’t know guys. I enjoy writing these reviews, but even with the new format (that should make it easier to just put these out quickly…), I’m still struggling to keep up! (Although I finish games at a snail’s pace, so I shouldn’t have to struggle...) I have three reviews pending, and two games that I will probably finish within a weeks time: The Surge 2 and Broforce.

 

I have been thinking about simply closing my thread, but I cannot bring myself to do so… But I might need to approach things a bit less ambitiously in the future, I dunno 

I found that I like to write about the games that I actually enjoy or really hate. Haven't played a game I actually really hate in a long time though. I enjoy reading your reviews and understand if you want to stop, but I would say try sticking to writing about the games that excite you (like Vermintide 2). I tend to gloss over games I finish that were meh, as writing about them is time consuming.

[Arcesius]

On 23.2.2021 at 4:14 PM, Together_Comic said:

For what it's worth, I really enjoy reading your reviews of all the games that you play.  I think that you do it in a really neat and unique way from others that I read. Not to mention, you always find a way to add stuff to my completely to long back log of games that I want to play.  .  Definitely understand that things get in the way though, and its tough to want to spend what seems like already limited free time on writing up reviews, not to mention trying to get them out in a timely fashion. 

 

On 23.2.2021 at 6:11 PM, Grotz99 said:

I found that I like to write about the games that I actually enjoy or really hate. Haven't played a game I actually really hate in a long time though. I enjoy reading your reviews and understand if you want to stop, but I would say try sticking to writing about the games that excite you (like Vermintide 2). 

 

Thanks guys for the feedback, that means a lot  

 

I really don't want to close the thread.. it's not always equally active, but I do enjoy the discussions I've had within this thread a lot. And, as I mentioned, I really do enjoy writing down my thoughts on the games I finish. It's a way to spend some last minutes with the game, really thinking about what they do well, what flaws were noticeable enough, etc... 

 

But I should try to put them out quickly, instead of allowing the rewiew-queue to grow. 

 

I will probably finish The Surge 2 tonight / tomorrow and Broforce soon after, so my goal is to write all reviews before finishing my next game after Broforce (which should be 10' Second Ninja X, so that I can move on to Tier 2 of our UR event). 

 

 

Btw you all know that I really love indie games... The new sale has a LOT of good games guys, so go get some! Some recommendations from my part:

• Hyper Light Drifter
• Nex Machina
• Little Nightmares
• Action Henk
• Crypt of the NecroDancer
• Dead Cells
• Guacamelee 1 & 2
• ...

and many more! Personally, I also grabbed two games from the sale... Fury Unleashed and Rise & Shine! We'll find soon enough if they are worth recommending  

 

Again, thanks for the positive feedback... I will try to get my V2 review out tomorrow! (No more promises though...  )

[Floriiss]

Nice checklist you've got here, Arcesius! Those reviews are very in-depth and people seem to love it. Though I can totally understand your perspective "on the closing" part, as writing these reviews can take up a lot of time. Back when I used to write on my checklist I was in the same boat. Writing reviews could take me hours and often times it felt more as an obligation. All together I started noticing I wasn't enjoying it as much, so I switched some things around. I ended up writing more selective reviews. Things I truly enjoyed I would go very in-depth on them, but things I enjoyed less (or smaller games) I would either not write about, or write very little about. In the end you don't have to write an entire page for every single game you play. A small sentence can already be enough. Additionally you can always present your thoughts in a different format. Personally I love to create videos. So when I can combine writing with video/audio the whole process becomes a lot more enjoyable for me! These things really helped me to find enjoyment in it. I think that's most important here. To find something that you enjoy and that works for you. Hope that helps

[Grotz99]

10 hours ago, Arcesius said:

 

• Hyper Light Drifter
• Nex Machina
• Little Nightmares
• Action Henk
• Crypt of the NecroDancer
• Dead Cells
• Guacamelee 1 & 2
• ...

Action Henk looks brutal for trophies but fun overall. Where would you rank it difficulty wise with the other games you have played? Hyper Light Drifter also looks pretty sweet.

 

Considering getting Action Henk anyways at that price. Even if I'm not good enough for 100%, I think I can get all golds if I try hard enough.

 

Just read your review of it, you don't make it sound too tough, but of course coming from you that can mean it's extremely hard still. ?

Edited February 25, 2021 by Grotz99
Found the Action Henk review

[Arcesius]

On 25.2.2021 at 11:23 AM, Floriiss said:

Nice checklist you've got here, Arcesius! Those reviews are very in-depth and people seem to love it. Though I can totally understand your perspective "on the closing" part, as writing these reviews can take up a lot of time. Back when I used to write on my checklist I was in the same boat. Writing reviews could take me hours and often times it felt more as an obligation. All together I started noticing I wasn't enjoying it as much, so I switched some things around. I ended up writing more selective reviews. Things I truly enjoyed I would go very in-depth on them, but things I enjoyed less (or smaller games) I would either not write about, or write very little about. In the end you don't have to write an entire page for every single game you play. A small sentence can already be enough. Additionally you can always present your thoughts in a different format. Personally I love to create videos. So when I can combine writing with video/audio the whole process becomes a lot more enjoyable for me! These things really helped me to find enjoyment in it. I think that's most important here. To find something that you enjoy and that works for you. Hope that helps

 

Thanks Floriiss! You are absolutely right, I just don't want it to feel like an obligation, which it definitely can. I tried to make it easier to put out the reviews by changing my format to have the fixed sections you see in the later ones (The Pitch - The Best - The Worst - The Challenge), but it is still not always that easy to write down everything I want to say... 

 

But sure, you are right in that not every single review needs to be endlessly long, and I could definitely see myself just writing more just about the games I really feel like writing more about, and keep it short with other games. 

 

Thanks for the nice feedback!  

 

 

On 25.2.2021 at 6:43 PM, Grotz99 said:

Action Henk looks brutal for trophies but fun overall. Where would you rank it difficulty wise with the other games you have played? Hyper Light Drifter also looks pretty sweet.

 

Considering getting Action Henk anyways at that price. Even if I'm not good enough for 100%, I think I can get all golds if I try hard enough.

 

Just read your review of it, you don't make it sound too tough, but of course coming from you that can mean it's extremely hard still. 

 

Hyper Light Drifter is not that hard, but it is among my favorite games, so I hope you got it in the sale! 

 

As for Action Henk.. It depends who you ask and, most importantly, how much you enjoy speedruns. Let me put it this way: @BB-BakkerJ just recently got the plat in Super Meat Boy, and he put that one in the same league as Action Henk. Personally, I found Action Henk quite a bit easier than SMB. The difference? BB has stated several times that he does not enjoy speedruns all that much. I adore them. So I would assume that we struggled more or less equally with Action Henk, but I might have noticed less since I enjoyed going for better times. (BB, do you think this might be true?). 

 

Let me put it this way.. It is not extremely hard, but it will make you learn its advanced mechanics if you want to shave off miliseconds off your PB. It is a game that I believe deserves being sub-1%, but it is also a lot of fun and for the price it is being offered for, I'd certainly recommend it!  

[Miles]

12 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Let me put it this way.. It is not extremely hard, but it will make you learn its advanced mechanics if you want to shave off miliseconds off your PB. It is a game that I believe deserves being sub-1%, but it is also a lot of fun and for the price it is being offered for, I'd certainly recommend it!  

 

It's worth mentioning that following a video guide with voice over (there's a good one for each level on YouTube) cuts down the difficulty dramastically. Most of the games mechanics arent explained at all in the tutorial so having a guide really cut the difficulty down to a maybe 6-7/10.

[Baker]

2 hours ago, Arcesius said:

 

As for Action Henk.. It depends who you ask and, most importantly, how much you enjoy speedruns. Let me put it this way: @BB-BakkerJ just recently got the plat in Super Meat Boy, and he put that one in the same league as Action Henk. Personally, I found Action Henk quite a bit easier than SMB. The difference? BB has stated several times that he does not enjoy speedruns all that much. I adore them. So I would assume that we struggled more or less equally with Action Henk, but I might have noticed less since I enjoyed going for better times. (BB, do you think this might be true?). 

 

Let me put it this way.. It is not extremely hard, but it will make you learn its advanced mechanics if you want to shave off miliseconds off your PB. It is a game that I believe deserves being sub-1%, but it is also a lot of fun and for the price it is being offered for, I'd certainly recommend it!  

Well, I judge difficulty by how much time I need to spend practicing a difficult trophy. I consider myself an average skilled gamer so for hard games I need to invest a lot of time. I don’t consider Action Henk as a speedrun game at all, but as short time trials, which I definitely enjoy. I had a lot of fun shaving of those milliseconds of my time to get Rainbow Medals.

 

Really, only full game speedruns are not for me. Like 30 min.+ speedruns. It destroys all the fun I have in games as I like to take things slowly.

 

Now the second hardest AH level took me 4-5 hours and the hardest one 8 hours of practice. Safe to say, because you mostly restart early in a run, I’ve played those levels hundreds of times. Those are 30-45 second levels. Impossible Boy in SMB took me around 15 hours of practice but it’s a 9 minute Iron Man run. So therefore I consider it the same difficulty. More or less ?. Maybe Action Henk is slightly easier, but not much imo.

 

But the game is awesome so I recommend it to anyone. Picked up 10 Second Ninja X just recently because it’s made by the same developer ?.

 

Edit:

 

And a quick thing about Hyper Light Drifter. The Dash Eternal trophy is pretty difficult imo. Also took me many hours of practice. The reason I think it has such a high completion is due to scripts, same as with FFIX Jump Rope trophy.

Edited February 26, 2021 by BB-BakkerJ