Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[AJ_Radio]

10 Second Ninja X won’t be that bad for you. You’ve done much harder stuff. Found it fairly enjoyable by the time I was finished.

[Arcesius]

Well, this one is probably going to be a wall of text. But again, this was one of the best games I’ve played in recent years, and the biggest surprise in my gaming history, so I couldn’t help it. Here goes nothing... my review for Warhammer: Vermintide 2! ?

 

 

 #79 - Warhammer: Vermintide 2

 

 

 

The Pitch

If you ever fantasized about slaughtering endless hordes of enemies in a challenging, engaging, first-person melee-focused game (very specific), then look no further than Warhammer: Vermintide 2, a game featuring self-combusting Wizards, tanky Dwarves and flagellating Shamans fighting against Rats and Beastmen. 

 

 

 

 

The Best

First of all, I need to give a huge shoutout to my team, the loyal and persevering @Mori (Saltzpyre), @Koro249 (Sienna) and @Floriiss (Kerillian). It was an amazing game and I had a fantastic time, session after session, playing this with you guys. Really glad that I was a part of it! 

Also, thanks @Darkette, our only and most loyal viewer for sticking with us through this experience, providing tips where they were needed   

 

Now, about the actual game... If you think you know what satisfying combat feels like but haven’t played Vermintide 2, then you know nothing and you’re wrong  But seriously. From watching some gameplay, at least before you have tried this game out for yourself, it is really difficult to

1. Really understand what’s going on.
2. Gauge how incredibly responsive the controls are.
3. Notice how key positioning and communication are for success.
4. How much “weight” each swing really has, and how they fit the respective weapon.

And many more things of course. Before we started playing, I went into this game expecting some shallow slaughtering experience. But from the moment I started controlling my character, I noticed that this game would be unlike anything I had played.

 

Now, not to make this section too long, but combat is without a doubt the best aspect of this game. And while it might seem shallow at first, it is one of the most complex combat systems I have come across... And I'm not only talking about the mechanics, which are, of course, really, REALLY deep, and I spent many hours watching videos on hidden figures, crit values, swing time animations, etc... but the more noticeable ones. The enemies, and the required cooperation to be successful. 

 

Let's start with the first one... One of the factors that make combat so engaging are the different types, or “roles” of enemies that you encounter. You have your huge hordes of minions, weak enemies that die in a couple of hits but are so plentiful that they can take you down in the blink of an eye of you are not careful. You have the stronger Elite enemies, usually protected by tough armor that some weapons can deal better with than others. Then there are Disablers, which I think are a genious addition to the game… The goal of these enemies is to split the party up, and use the chaos from the endless hordes and elites to achieve their goal. For example, you have Leeches, which teleport behind the player and suck them in, incapacitating them, you have Blightstormers, usually walking around far away from the battlefield, which conjure a storm that sends the player caught in its path flying, etc… You get the idea. And of course, you have bosses. 

From left to right: Horde Mob (Skavenslave), Elite (Chaos Warrior), Disabler (Lifeleech) and Boss (Chaos Spawn). 

 

    

It is the combination of these types of enemies that make each encounter incredibly tense. You might be fighting a horde of minions in front of you, with some elites sprinkled in... when suddenly you hear a Leech spawn (each Elite / Disabler makes a special sound when they spawn that you learn to recognize)... Now you need to keep fighting, wihout letting down your guard, but you also need to try and spot that Leech before it can get to you. 

Oh no, but wait.. what's that? Do I really hear a Chaos Spawn? Fuck... Quickly, I will kite the boss around while you guys take care of the mobs! ?

 

 

And that brings me to the second point I mentioned above... Coordination and communication is essential in this game. Each run should be tackled with several roles being covered. You should always have someone whose job is crowd control and taking care of the hordes. You need someone that is able to easily deal with Elites and Bosses. You need someone that can take care of Disablers before they get the chance to separate your party… And you, as a player, need to adapt to the role you are playing, and equip your character accordingly.

You were greedy and wanted to kill the Elite despite being the horde-clearer? Well, the swarm just ganked your teammate, who now can no longer snipe the Leech that just teleported behind you. Party Wipe incoming! ☹️

 

Seriously though, without proper communication, without proper understanding of what to prioritize in every situation, without experience with your chosen class, you have no chance at winning on harder difficulties. With the exception of Weaves, where spawns are scripted, the enemy type you get when queuing a game is random. Where and what boss spawns is random. When a horde spawns, when and what Disablers sneak up on you… everything is random and on a timer, meaning that you need to learn the map layout and adapt on the fly to what’s thrown at you. And you need to do this in a coordinated manner. But it also means that each run of a map is unique, exciting, and potentially deadly. ?

 

 

The Worst

I’ll keep this one short. Why in all hell is there no “restart level” option??? Say you need to restart your run for whatever reason… Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just do so from the menu? You can’t. So the process for restarting a run is as follows:

 

First, everybody tries to get killed. This can take some time, depending on whether enemies are close-by, or if you need to wait for them to spawn. Then, you are taken to the results screen, which also takes a while given that the loading times in this game are pretty ridiculous. Now, everyone spawns eventually in the hub world, where you need to walk to the level selection map and make your choices. Now everyone needs to walk to the teleporter that starts the level after a countdown, resulting in a relatively long loading screen and, once again, the introductory level cutscene.

 

Why? If I don’t want to make any changes to my loadout, the difficulty level, etc.. why do I need to go through the entire cycle above?

 

Small nitpick, but definitely something that we noticed.

 

 

The Challenge

Let me start with the overall challenge in this game. The first thing you should do when starting this game is simply choosing the lowest difficulty (Recruit), and play through the entire game and DLC on that difficulty. Here, you can take many hits without going down, there is no friendly fire, items are plentiful, etc… It’s a pretty chill experience and fun way to start this game.

More importantly though, while playing on this difficulty you will get to know all types of enemies, especially Disablers. If you don’t learn how to take these motherfuckers down quickly, it can result in instant wipes on higher difficulties. It is thus imperative to learn what sounds they make when they spawn, and always make them your primary target.

Luckily, our party had two amazing disabler-snipers with Mori and Floriiss, and they performed their role very nicely, giving Koro and myself the required time to deal with hordes and other threats (and vice versa). ?

 

Now, instead of easing our way up from Recruit through Veteran, Champion and finally Legend… we decided to do the time-limited DLC content next: Weaves.

Weaves are maps with fixed spawns and various objectives that need to be completed within 15 minutes, all while dealing with one of eight unique modifiers. For example, the Celestial Weaves summon lighning bolts in regular intervals that damage both the player and all enemies caught in the impact radius. In Gold Weaves, armoured enemies are tougher to kill, but grant the player a damaging aura when they go down. Enemies are invisible in Grey Weaves and have 80% damage reduction, and they only become visible once they are very close to the player. And so on.

 

The first 10 weaves are on Recruit difficulty, and they keep getting progressively harder and harder. For “Weave Dominator” we needed to complete the first 80 ranked Weaves, with 41-60 being on Cataclysm, and 61-80 on Cataclysm 2 difficulty ?

 

I’m mentioning this here for one reason: Completing all 80 weaves was by far the hardest thing this game had to offer, and was extremely frustrating at times. We barely knew how the game worked when we started tackling this end-game content, and we probably struggled more than we would / should have. Going for the 80 weaves took us somewhere between 100 and 120 hours for sure, and we were stuck multiple times for 5 hours on a single level. The frustration was also there because we knew the Season we were currently in would end eventually, and our progress past Weave 40 would be lost if we didn’t finish all 80 Weaves before the next season started. So we were under pressure, but the game just didn’t give a fuck ?. It kept throwing us into more and more overwhelming challenges, trying to break us. But it didn’t manage. Not once did our party think of giving up, not once did anyone mention that enough is enough, that this is bullshit and not fun anymore. Because it just was a blast the majority of the time, and successfully finishing a hard Weave after hours of trying just always felt a-ma-zing. 

 

And… that just sucked me in. Despite the frustration at times, the next session could not come soon enough. I was always looking forward to the next session even knowing that I would have to sacrifice sleep (yeah, ending a session at 3 AM having a small child at home is not necessarily the best idea…) and would spend my next day as a zombie. I kept reading and watching tips on mechanics the game would not explain you, trying to optimize my builds to suit my own playstyle and be an asset to our team, not a liability. This game consumed me, even when I wasn’t playing it ?.

 

But, eventually, we were done with Weaves, leaving only one more thing to do for the 100%… Complete one Misc task in each map while playing on Legend difficulty, including some Legend runs in the DLCs.

But you know what? After having done all Weaves, playing on Legend was an absolute cakewalk. Doing the Misc cleanup went extremely smoothly with one exception that took us a couple of attempts, and we were all (except Mori ?) surprised that we were not having any trouble whatsoever playing on Legend. Not only in a party, but we are now able to do Legend runs with Bots without issues. And seeing how far we’ve come is just incredible.

 

Need to traverse a huge underground sewers in complete darkness, even having had trouble on Recruit lightning up braziers? Only noobs need light.

Kite five Chaos Warriors around a statue for 10 Minutes while avoiding Disablers and other enemies, even when one single Chaos Warrior could wipe our party when we started out? Please, try to hit me… ?

 

 

Let me just end with this. If I suddenly decided to become one of these guys that just focus on a single game for their rest of their lives, spending thousands of hours on that one game, I’d go with Warhammer: Vermintide 2. It’s just that good.

 

 

 

Well, I hope you can take something positive from all the text above... ? I have meanwhile finished Broforce and should be done with Risk of Rain 2 either today or tomorrow, depending on how our session tonight goes... So, I won't be able to write all pending reviews before finishing that one, but that's ok  

Edited March 23, 2021 by Arcesius

[Arcesius]

"What, two reviews in one week?" Shut up and read! ?

 

I took the advice seriously and decided to keep the reviews a bit shorter, hoping to get them out closer to when I actually finish the game. Of course with exceptions. I needed to write an essay on Vermintide 2, but the next game doesn't need such a long review ?

 

 

 #80 - Neon Abyss

 

 

 

The Pitch

Venture into the Abyss, filled with hungry Teddybears and flying Cyclops, and see how you become an insane machine of desctuction on your way to defeating the Godess of Illusion. 

 

 

 

 

The Best

There are games where the items that you pick up replace your current ones, and there are games where everything, regardless of how crazy it is, simply stacks. Neon Abyss is in the latter category, and as such is a crazy ass game that can make you feel OP in no time.

 

I mean, look at this ?

 

 

Going from a slow-shooting pea-shooter to shooting screen-filling laser beams while flying around followed by unhatched eggs and successfully hatched pets can (emphasis on can) feel amazing. And man, the item pool is huge! Sure, not all weapons feel equally good to play, and some items are better than others (and some I deliberately stopped picking up at some point… fuck you, Dangerous Mine), but the sheer amount of distinct items also makes each run feel different from the previous one.

 

Wait, did you say "Eggs"? ?

 

Yes, I did... You can pick up eggs that will follow you, and after a while they will hatch. They might be empty, but you might also get one of many different pets, each of which helps you in different ways. 

 

 

This is a game that puts most of its emphasis on style, both in its visuals, but also in making the player feel "stylish". And man, I truly love the visuals, and they are one of the reasons I even became interested in this game. The enemies are crazy, and seeing the items that you pick up on your character is really awesome. Neon Abyss really reminds me a lot of The Binding of Isaac in that regard, even though the themes are clearly different.

 

So what is now “The Best”? I think the craziness that is going on in every single run, paired with the stylish visuals and the god-like feeling of annihilating everything in sight.

 

(Do I have a problem?)

 

 

The Worst

While, as I mentioned, there are tons and tons of different weapons and items, the same variety is not to be found with the enemies and zones.

In games such as Dead Cells or Crypt of the NecroDancer, you have zone-specific enemies, and plenty of them, granting each zone its unique characteristics and making them recognizable. In Neon Abyss, you can find any enemy in any zone.

It also doesn’t help that zones are not really visually distinct except for maybe the lighting being a bit more red the further you venture into the Abyss. 

 

In turn, the above means that zones blend together easily, and everything looks and feels the same. For a game that puts that much emphasis on style, this is really disappointing.

 

 

The Challenge

I guess it is rare to find a proper roguelike these days, with the main argument being "accessibility". And don't get me wrong, I often need to play a game where I can quit anytime! However, for roguelikes, having the option to quit mid-run kinda goes against the philosophy of the genre.

 

Neon Abyss also was implemented to be accessible. What does this mean? Well, that you can save-scum, of course.

And so, the platinum becomes trivial ?

 

It’s a shame, too. The hardest challenges would be really, really tough otherwise. For example, to even unlock Abyssal difficulty you need to maintain a win-streak on Hard. You then unlock Abyssal difficulty for ONE SINGLE RUN! If you die, you need to win again on Hard. If you lose on Hard, you now need two wins on Hard in a row… ?

Beating the hidden boss on Abyssal without save-scumming would usually be a very daunting task.

 

You are also tasked with completing a no-damage and a no-items run. I did these both on a fresh save, as the run is shorter and the tougher enemies don’t spawn yet, and so it was no trouble at all.

 

But the above examples are the only challenging ones found on the trophy list. The devs went with a mostly grindy list instead. Die 99 times (whyyyyyyy?!?!), enter the Abyss 999 times and, the grindiest of them all, unlock all characters. There are six characters to unlock, each found in one upgrade-tree. To unlock the next tree you need to spend enough gems in the current one, and gems only drop from bosses.

Now, once I was done with everything else, I found that the fastest method to get gems was to just start a new run and find and kill the first boss in Zone 1 as quickly as possible, then restart the run. This way, I would only get 1 gem per run, but it would only take about 2 minutes to get that far.

 

Unfortunately, I needed to do this 75+ times.

 

Yes. It got old after a while ?

Edited March 23, 2021 by Arcesius

[Copanele]

3 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

"What, two reviews in one week?" Shut up and read! 

 

Damn that's some serious character development ? NICE! loving them reviews! Neon Abyss looks like an awesome game with a painful platinum.

 

Also your Warhammer images aren't showing  I just see a "image missing" screen for all 4 of them.

[Arcesius]

5 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Damn that's some serious character development  NICE! loving them reviews! Neon Abyss looks like an awesome game with a painful platinum.

 

Also your Warhammer images aren't showing  I just see a "image missing" screen for all 4 of them.

 

It was a good time, but yeah the grind left a bit of a sour taste... Stylish for sure!

 

Hmm, I replaced the images now.. Are they showing?

[Copanele]

Just now, Arcesius said:

 

It was a good time, but yeah the grind left a bit of a sour taste... Stylish for sure!

 

Hmm, I replaced the images now.. Are they showing?

Yup, they are showing now! Although i have no idea what those things are  

Gotta read that review AGAIN! 

[AJ_Radio]

Neon Abyss looks right down my alley. Didn’t hear of it until I looked at your profile @Arcesius. Thanks for showing the game and talking about it, will probably pick it up in the near future.

[Arcesius]

On 6.3.2021 at 0:51 AM, AJ_Radio said:

Neon Abyss looks right down my alley. Didn’t hear of it until I looked at your profile @Arcesius. Thanks for showing the game and talking about it, will probably pick it up in the near future.

 

I'm glad that you got something out of that review! It was quite fun for sure. It's currently on sale btw, though it's only 33% off so I bet you'll find it cheaper at some point in the future if you aren't planing on getting to it asap. 

 

 

Alright guys, I finished Risk of Rain 2 and 10 Second Ninja X... With those games, it's again back to 4 reviews pending! On the bright side, I'm currently playing some games that will definitely take a bit longer to complete, so I think I'll manage to catch up this time  

 

Let's start with the next game in line: 

 

 

 #81 - The Surge 2

 

 

 

The Pitch

Return to world of The Surge, where CREO makes use of advanced technology to try to revert the negative impact humans had on the environment, and some nutjobs confuse electricity with an entity worth praying to.

 

 

 

 

The Best

The addition of Punching Gloves! Seriously, this weapon is a TON of fun to use.. I was already ready to return to my beloved “Staff”-style weapons, but once I tried out the Punching Gloves I didn’t wanna use anything else… They sure allow you to stay in your opponent’s face and be as aggressive as you can, which is exactly my style. Strap on a modifier that increases you power with each subsequent attack and holy hell, you become a devastating and unstoppable machine! 

 

Furthermore, there are a few changes from the original Surge that make gameplay much more enjoyable. One of the more interesting new mechanics is the introduction of “directional blocking”. It’s basically a parry, but needs to be executed in the direction of the incoming attack and timed correctly (and not all attacks can be directional blocked). They also introduced new modifiers that work nicely with this new mechanic. For example, you can increase your power or attack speed after a successful directional block, or even regain some health and energy.

I didn’t build my character around this feature, but I sure made use of it a LOT! It is very fun, and it feels super rewarding to use  

 

One word on “The Kraken Expansion” DLC… This was actually one very enjoyable expansion! After spending the entire game in a destroyed, rusty city, going onto the monstrous ship only to be greeted by a grassy backyard and colorful houses was.. unexpected to say the least I really enjoyed the setting, and despite it being pretty short, it was definitely worthwhile. 

 

To update Deck 13’s track record on DLC within the “soulslike”-genre: They have now released 2 great / enjoyable and 2 awful, AWFUL DLCs. The numbers might be even, but the Lords of the Fallen DLC and “The Good, the Bad and the Augmented” DLC from The Surge are so incredibly bad that they count at least twice each. 

 

 

The Worst

Ah this is a weird one.. There is not quite anything in this game that is awful…? It’s just that most things are pretty mediocre. It’s an overall ok game with nothing that stands out as being horrible.

 

Maybe the balance? I will touch upon the challenge in the next section, but with the game being as easy as it is, it kinda makes the inclusion of so many drone modules and injectables pretty obsolete. I made exactly use of one single injectable, and used one offensive drone module throughout the entire game. One.

 

It feels like wasted potential to me personally.

 

Also, the lighting was pretty bad at times.

 

Yeah, I got nothing ?

 

 

The Challenge

Let us all agree on one thing… When you start a souls-inspired title, there is a specific type of challenge that you are expecting, right?

 

Well, the original Surge was overtuned in that regard, featuring only a handful bosses that would generally turn out to be pushovers anyways, and regular mobs dealing insane amounts of damage that could 1-2 shot you regardless of your gear.

With The Surge 2, they adressed both problems. They added more bosses, and trash-mobs now feel like trash. But they did not quite hit the right spot with either change.

 

Most bosses are still pushovers and not really all that interesting to fight. Not a single fight was memorable, maybe with the exception of Delver…? Yeah, nothing else really comes to mind as standing out particularly. Hell, there were even multiple instances of me entering a boss arena and beating my enemy almost without noticing it’s supposed to be a boss fight… HAROLD, Goddess Helena, Cervantes, Matriarch Celeste… They went all down without putting up a fight.

 

On the other hand, regular enemies… They are a joke in this game. With some exceptions towards the end of the game when you start facing Mk. IX and Mk. X enemies, mobs are there mostly to fill up the otherwise empty space, but they don’t really pose too much of a threat.

 

Overall, this game is severely lacking in terms of challenge. I was surprised at how easy it was to push forward, and at how quickly the game was over in general.

Still, it was a lot of fun, and exactly the kind of game I was feeling like playing. I just hope that the next game will be closer to The Surge in terms of challenge, but keep all the good changes present in The Surge 2.

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by Arcesius

[AJ_Radio]

2 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Alright guys, I finished Risk of Rain 2 and 10 Second Ninja X... With those games, it's again back to 4 reviews pending! On the bright side, I'm currently playing some games that will definitely take a bit longer to complete, so I think I'll manage to catch up this time

 

I found 10 Second Ninja X thrilling. Fun little indie game. Marathoning a series of quick levels and getting X Rank did take a while though.

[Arcesius]

Alright, short review for a short game! 

 

Oh, but before we get there... You know that I don't care about platinums but instead about 100% completed games... I don't know how to enumerate games to reflect that though, since DLC can mess up with those numbers... If you have ideas, please let me know! Would appreciate it  

 

Now, onto the review! 

 

 

 #13 - Broforce

 

 

 

The Pitch

If you are feeling low on testosterone, are hungry for utter chaos, or want to see how to insert the word “Bro” into the names of your favorite action heroes, then Broforce is the game for you!

 

 

 

 

The Best

Honestly, the best thing about this game is the chaos and destruction when playing coop, together with unlocking new Bros and laughing your ass off ? Man, we played this game in 3-player coop on Hard from the get go and just experienced so many crazy and ridiculous situations… Of course most of those situations led to death, but restarting a level is so quick that it didn’t really get on our nerves all that often.

Stages are composed of block-shaped tiles, and you can destroy everything. EVERYTHING (ok, except ladders). There are explosive barrels placed everywhere, and it is not uncommon to start a chain reaction of explosions destroying even larger parts of the stage, killing everyting including yourself and other players. 

 

Everything is really over the top. Super patriotic (I mean, just have a look at the game's banner...), full of manliness, with Bosses named "Terrorkannon - Taking Terrorism to new Heights" or "Megacockter - Overcompensate Much?". It's crazy, and it's hilarious ?

 

Then of course the Bros themselves… They are mostly taken from classic action movies. Lemme name a few, maybe you recognize the original character…

 

 Rambro - Equipped with a Machine Gun, basically the protagonist of the game. 

 Double Bro Seven - I love this one. Not the character, but the name ? Dunno, just found it great. 

 Broheart - Screaming "Freeeedooooom" as his special attack... 

 The Boondock Bros - You get extra coolness points in my book if you recognized which movie this is referencing... Classic! 

 

 

… the list of good names just goes on. They all play differently, too, and whenever you restart a level, you get a different Bro to play with, so you need to adapt to that character’s playstyle.

 

 

The Worst

There was one thing that was a bit annoying… Each time you face a new enemy type, or a boss, there is an introductory screen presenting that enemy, and control is taken away from you for some time. That’s nice and all, but we were not being the most careful of players on our first playthrough, so death would come often. Having to watch those screens over and over and over again was just… a fucking pain in the butt. One would expect that the introduction would be skipped automatically after watching it for the first time, but that’s unfortunately not the case.

 

Not the biggest issue, but noticeable, especially towards the end where bosses on Hard were no joke (we didn't use any exploits.. Only found some for the subsequent playthrough of the Ironbro campaign), so it was a bit of trial and error over quite a few deaths. 

 

 

The Challenge

Well, Hard mode was definitely a bit of a challenge, and towards the final stages we noticed that we needed to play more carefully, slowly moving through the levels shooting our way through the ground instead of taking our enemies head-on.

Playing in coop also resulted in death more often that it would solo, due to everything being destructible, and chain explosions happening often, destroying the path forward, and often killing at least one player. But the unlimited lives and quick restarts allow to finish a playthrough pretty quickly regardless.

 

However, there is also a hardcore campaign… Ironbro-mode, where each of the 32 Bros has only one single life. You need to complete the entire campaign with limited lives, but this can (and should) be done on Normal. The game even warns you that Ironbro on Hard is not balanced at all, and is not a fair mode. Also, there is no multiplayer-option here. You need to beat this mode solo.

 

Anyways, even on normal this could be pretty difficult to achieve. Death is part of the game, and due to the level structure and unpredictability of certain actions, it is simply too easy to die in the blink of an eye.

But you noticed that I wrote “could”, right? That’s because the game does not save mid-level, so you can quit after a death and reload the game again. This way, it simply becomes a matter of being careful and know when a death can be afforded.

 

Fun game that is way easier than it's rarity suggests. I would recommend it if you can play it in coop and want to have a good time   

Edited March 23, 2021 by Arcesius

[Copanele]

Yey BROFORCE! I can only imagine how stupid fun that game is with friends. I played it solo with my girlfriend laughing in the background at the stupidity of the game (and my own stupidity when dying from absurd situations), worth every moment.

Ironbro was also fun because you had to tone down the madness and actually use your head.

 

10 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Oh, but before we get there... You know that I don't care about platinums but instead about 100% completed games... I don't know how to enumerate games to reflect that though, since DLC can mess up with those numbers... If you have ideas, please let me know! Would appreciate it  

The way I number them is : 

If it's got a platinum + DLC mandatory - I give it the  counter. e.g.  No. 100

If it's only a 100% - I give it the ? counter . E.g ? No. 22

 

Efficient? Hell no, but it works for the most part  

[Arcesius]

10 minutes ago, Copanele said:

The way I number them is : 

If it's got a platinum + DLC mandatory - I give it the  counter. e.g.  No. 100

If it's only a 100% - I give it the  counter . E.g  No. 22

 

Efficient? Hell no, but it works for the most part  

 

Meh, don't need efficiency here ? But yeah that's what I'm doing currently... I don't like it though, it puts an emphasis on the Platinum trophy that I'd like to avoid. Like Broforce, I have it now as  #13 - Broforce since it's my 13th completed game without a plat, but it is actually my 94th completed game. 

 

Obviously I could just enumerate them like that. The problem then is just that if I complete, say Game X as my 90th game, and then DLC comes out... well, too much thinking for something as silly and unimportant as the order of completion ?

[Mori]

The pictures dont work again.

 

Also, I completely forgot to mention to you guys, you can fast forward cutscenes by pressing R2... found that out at the devil fight...

[KN_Kirai]

Just now, Arcesius said:

 

Meh, don't need efficiency here ? But yeah that's what I'm doing currently... I don't like it though, it puts an emphasis on the Platinum trophy that I'd like to avoid. Like Broforce, I have it now as  #13 - Broforce since it's my 13th completed game without a plat, but it is actually my 94th completed game. 

 

Obviously I could just enumerate them like that. The problem then is just that if I complete, say Game X as my 90th game, and then DLC comes out... well, too much thinking for something as silly and unimportant as the order of completion ?

 

You can either consider the position the game is in when you finish it the first time and not care about re-completing it if a DLC comes out, or you can adjust the order accordingly every time, up to you. Personally I'd go with the former.

 

You're gonna have some trouble with past games and dates, FFXV especially if you completed every DLC as soon as they were available. ?

[Rally-Vincent---]

11 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

Meh, don't need efficiency here  But yeah that's what I'm doing currently... I don't like it though, it puts an emphasis on the Platinum trophy that I'd like to avoid. Like Broforce, I have it now as  #13 - Broforce since it's my 13th completed game without a plat, but it is actually my 94th completed game. 

 

Obviously I could just enumerate them like that. The problem then is just that if I complete, say Game X as my 90th game, and then DLC comes out... well, too much thinking for something as silly and unimportant as the order of completion 

 

Or you add "plus DLC X" to the base number: e.g.  #13 plus DLC 2 for a 2nd DLC.

Edited March 12, 2021 by Rally-Vincent---

[Arcesius]

9 minutes ago, Mori said:

The pictures dont work again.

 

Also, I completely forgot to mention to you guys, you can fast forward cutscenes by pressing R2... found that out at the devil fight...

 

Man those pictures... Fixed them now (hopefully). 

 

Also, dude ? Such an important piece of information withheld from us! ?

 

 

9 minutes ago, KN_Kirai said:

 

You can either consider the position the game is in when you finish it the first time and not care about re-completing it if a DLC comes out, or you can adjust the order accordingly every time, up to you. Personally I'd go with the former.

 

You're gonna have some trouble with past games and dates, FFXV especially if you completed every DLC as soon as they were available. ?

 

Yeah I was thinking about doing it like that... I mean, I also usually don't write another review after going back to a game for new DLC, so I guess it would be a good option... But yeah, I don't wanna go through my trophy log just to figure the correct order for all of the games ? Dunno about FFXV, I think I left Comrades uncomplete until they announced the server shutdown for example... 

 

 

2 minutes ago, Rally-Vincent--- said:

Or you add "plus DLC X" to the base number: e.g.  #13 plus DLC 2 for a 2nd DLC.

 

Hmm so you mean I enumerate the base-game completion of all games regardless of whether they have a plat or not, and denote in addition the number of completed DLCs? 

 

This... might actually be worth considering... ? Thanks! 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Arcesius

[AJ_Radio]

Broforce looks like a little bit of a challenge with that one trophy being under one percent. May pick it up when it's on sale.

[Arcesius]

On 15.3.2021 at 2:07 AM, AJ_Radio said:

Broforce looks like a little bit of a challenge with that one trophy being under one percent. May pick it up when it's on sale.

 

It really is not. Honestly I have no idea how that trophy is sub 1%, especially since you can cheese it pretty hard... ? In all honesty, I would only recommend that game if you have someone to play it with. 

 

 

 

Now, hello everyone! 

 

I recently wrote about how I want to change how I order my games, and received some nice suggestions. I did a bit of thinking and just finished restructuring my OP   

 

So, what I decided to do is to enumerate my games in order of 100% completion and, since the release of new DLCs can then screw with the order, simply mark DLCs which were already out when I completed the game in boldface as they will be factored into my review. DLCs that release at a later time will be added to the list in regular font, since I usually don't write a new review for those.  

 

Aaaand... of course I also created new meters for enjoyment / challenge ? 

 

You can check out the OP if you wish, but this is a snapshot right here: 

 

 

Any feedback is of course greatly appreciated! I am personally very happy with how the OP looks now, and have updated the Enjoyment / Challenge rating of the last 4 reviews on this page to see how it looks.. I like it  

 

The next review is going to be for Risk of Rain 2 and should, now that I'm done with updating the checklist, come soon... Thanks for hanging around! 

[Shorah-]

On 02/03/2021 at 9:59 AM, Arcesius said:

Despite the frustration at times, the next session could not come soon enough. I was always looking forward to the next session even knowing that I would have to sacrifice sleep (yeah, ending a session at 3 AM having a small child at home is not necessarily the best idea…) and would spend my next day as a zombie. I kept reading and watching tips on mechanics the game would not explain you, trying to optimize my builds to suit my own playstyle and be an asset to our team, not a liability. This game consumed me, even when I wasn’t playing it ?.

 

I feel exactly the same and the best thing that could happen to me is finding a group like yours to go through those weaves.

I watched some of your runs on youtube, really good job, always positive vibes between you.

Really fair review for a game i felt would be just decent. What a mistake, it's just the best feeling i had in gaming for a long time.

Would be proud to get 100%

[AJ_Radio]

31 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

It really is not. Honestly I have no idea how that trophy is sub 1%, especially since you can cheese it pretty hard...  In all honesty, I would only recommend that game if you have someone to play it with.

 

The hardcore trophy is single player only. I just don't see it necessary to grab another player for this game.

[KN_Kirai]

Nice way not to "discriminate" between games with a platinum or not ? I guess this also lets you keep the "true" order of completion in your checklist even if a DLC comes out and your profile order changes.

[Arcesius]

14 minutes ago, Shorah- said:

I feel exactly the same and the best thing that could happen to me is finding a group like yours to go through those weaves.

I watched some of your runs on youtube, really good job, always positive vibes between you.

Really fair review for a game i felt would be just decent. What a mistake, it's just the best feeling i had in gaming for a long time.

Would be proud to get 100%

 

Haha nice to read!  The vibes were great, though there are a couple of weaves where I'm sure you can hear that we are all pretty tired ? The weave-content can be pretty exhausting at times, and we were all noobs at the game.. 

 

In contrast, we are now (with the same group) playing End Times Vermintide and breezing through it. But getting the weaves done was very, very demanding. 

 

But yeah I feel the same way... I really would not have expected to find such an amazing game in Vermintide, it surpassed all my expectations. Here is to hoping that Chaos Wastes will release on consoles as well! 

 

Oh and about finding a group.. the Vermintide discord is pretty active, even though mostly for people playing on Steam.. but I see people on PS4 wanting to play as well and asking for a group to do legend challenges and weaves.. maybe you could head over! Such a shame that there is no matchmaking for this mode... 

 

(Edit: Well, I just noticed that you were the last one to ask for the state of WoM... I hope you can find some people still!) 

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, AJ_Radio said:

The hardcore trophy is single player only. I just don't see it necessary to grab another player for this game.

 

It sure is, but the game is most fun when played with someone else. I'm not saying it is required to play in coop, I'm saying that I would not recommend the game if you are going to play it entirely solo since I don't think it's all that fun. That's all. 

 

 

12 minutes ago, KN_Kirai said:

Nice way not to "discriminate" between games with a platinum or not I guess this also lets you keep the "true" order of completion in your checklist even if a DLC comes out and your profile order changes.

 

Haha yeah I needed to go back and think twice about a few games though... There were more games that I played before DLC released than I remembered!

 

In the end, a game without a plat affects my statistics just as much as one with a plat, so I like not to make a distinction. Plus, with games like Action Henk or Trials Fusion not having a plat (Trials Fusion not even having a gold trophy in the base game...), the inclusion of a platinum trophy definitely is not a sign of being a better or more challenging game.  

Edited March 23, 2021 by Arcesius

[Shorah-]

6 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

In contrast, we are now (with the same group) playing End Times Vermintide and breezing through it.

 

Yeah it's nothing compared to V2.

Still enjoyable in a different way except all the farming to level 100 (there is a special tactic for that) and badges. 

 

[Copanele]

13 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 

It sure is, but the game is most fun when played with someone else. I'm not saying it is required to play in coop, I'm saying that I would not recommend the game if you are going to play it entirely solo since I don't think it's all that fun. That's all. 

As the official representative of the "I'd rather play alone" group, members : me, I can guarantee that this game is hella fun even solo ?

 

Loving the changes and the design :> if only I wasn't so lazy, I'd rearrange my dumb stuff on my Trophy Checklist also. 

Goddamnit @Arcesius now you make me read your game impressions again  why you doing this to me! (no regrets lol)

[Arcesius]

24 minutes ago, Shorah- said:

Still enjoyable in a different way except all the farming to level 100 (there is a special tactic for that) and badges. 

 

A special tactic you say... I'm all ears ? We're almost done with everything else and still have over 40 levels to grind out, so any tips would be appreciated! 

 

As for the badges, I have been farming quite a bit and should hopefully be done soon. It's a bit unfortunate that there is no counter... 

 

 

22 minutes ago, Copanele said:

As the official representative of the "I'd rather play alone" group, members : me, I can guarantee that this game is hella fun even solo 

 

Didn't you play this with your girlfriend? ? 

 

22 minutes ago, Copanele said:

Loving the changes and the design :> if only I wasn't so lazy, I'd rearrange my dumb stuff on my Trophy Checklist also. 

Goddamnit @Arcesius now you make me read your game impressions again  why you doing this to me! (no regrets lol)

 

Thanks man! It's not like I have a lot of time to do these kinds of things, but I had to see it through regardless... You know, having the checklist look how I imagine it to keep me motivated with updating it regularly  

 

How are those ranked wins coming along? ?