Recent reviews by Alienpope (TLL)

Maybe I'm missing something. While the premise is fun, the actual gameplay was just too much of the typical store manager sim gameplay.

For any potential new players. Try the Lethal difficulty!

First off, this game is absolutely incredible. I'm so glad they ported this to PC.

My first playthrough, I played on hard. It was fun. But my second playthrough... I turned on Lethal, and oh my godness... Even though lethal wasn't in the game on initial console release, it really feels like the game was meant to be played on Lethal. It's such a cool way to play the game and I recommend everyone to only play on this setting. It doesn't make the game harder or easier than the default Hard. But truly transforms the game into something beautiful!

Enemies will ♥♥♥♥ you up, and you will ♥♥♥♥ them up in equal measure on Lethal. Every fight has stakes and every fight can turn on its head in both yours and the enemy's favour. You're more incentivised to use everything in your arsenal. Games like this tend to add tools just for the sake of it. In this game, on Lethal everything feels meaningful and rewarding to use. Play on Lethal. Please. I beg you. You won't ever want to go back. Trust me!

With peak sound design and atmosphere, you play in a western dark fantasy. The world is brutal and anything will try to kill you, players and monsters alike. It's not for the faint of heart, or those easily frustrated by losing. You will die a lot. You will suffer a lot. But you just can't stop coming back to this one of a kind game.

People have been giving the game negative reviews because of recent additions and major changes to the game. But honestly, if the game released today as it is right now, most of those reviews wouldn't be written. People love to reminisce over how the game used to be. The game never stopped being good. Or at least as good as Hunt can be, dubious UI decisions, bugs and all. The imperfections almost feel like a feature at this point

If you're planning to get this game, beware that the game will 100% brass knuckle punch you in the face over and over again. But you'll learn to enjoy it. You'll long for the brass. Eventually, you’ll just shrug at headshots out of nowhere, like you’re in on some cosmic joke. Maybe you’ll even start appreciating the sound of your hunter’s agonized screams. It’s all part of the experience.

I've played total war games for 20 years and seen all the good and the bad CA has put out during that time. Pharaoh Dynasties is not bad. I'm having a decent amount of fun with it. I think it helps that I'm interested in the time period and areas it plays out in. But I am giving it a thumbs down because of the price, as well as because of the numerous bugs, some of which can be solved by saving, quiting, reloading. But it's quite annoying... I don't want to be annoyed playing any game, especially when I'm enjoying myself, constantly having to find workarounds and fiddle around to get things working. Please give the game some more love CA! It muddies the water when you actually have fun with the game.

Otherwise the game looks good (i don't mind the visual style), runs well and has some neat QOL improvements over other total war titles. Especially the campaign customization! Please add this and more to future games!

First off, YES! This DLC is tough! Especially the early parts of it. You feel weak and fragile with little hope to progress. But once you push through that first hurdle, the rest of the DLC feels "easier". Or at least... Not as harsh. But isn't this what we want? An unforgiving place that just wants you dead?

Difficulty aside, the new places, weapons, enemies, bosses are all incredible! Just like the base game, the DLC keeps surprising you throughout. "Oh? There's a hidden ladder here! I wonder where it takes me." *Accidentally discovers a massive underground area*. To me, this is why Elden ring is the best Souls game. The scale of it is so big, but somehow still packed with so much content and things to do and see.

Yeah, people are complaining about it being overtuned in difficulty. But I don't think it's that bad. It's harder than the base game, but far from impossible! Seek bravery, and you shall be rewarded!

The dev making this game has proved that he's working hard to get this game to a good state. He's often listening to community feedback, ironing out bugs reported by the community (bugs I've also reported) and adding features people want to see. This game is shaping up to be THE STANDARD of cozy beautiful town builders.

I look forward to what will become of this game, and adore what it already is. Well done Greg!

I think people are a bit harsh on the game right now. The game is okay. The foundation is there and it has big potential! But content-wise it's very barebones.

The big pull the game has is realm jumping. While the concept is really cool it's underwhelming right now. There's three types of biomes you can travel to, swamp, desert and forest. When playing one of these three biome cards you can add a modifier card that changes the difficulty of the realm you end up getting. But that's really all it does, it adds some different colors to things. but ultimately there's only three different realms you can travel to (with some minor procedural generation to it). I assumed before the game released that the amount of flavour, wonder and mysticism was going to be drastically different between a lot of the same biome realms you travel to. But alas, it's mostly just copy paste with the procedural generation being barely noticeable.

The building system is wonderful though! And art style has to be praised! Well done to the artists for the game!

The game will be an easy recommendation once realm jumping actually becomes fun and engaging! I want to be excited to see a new realm, I want to be surprised. But that went away after only a couple of realm jumps.

You may think you know how games work, what kind of gamey stuff you can do, and how they can be predictable in their mechanics and story elements. Well, Baldurs Gate 3 didn't get the memo. Everything you do... EVERYTHING, big or small can drastically change things.

Btw, if you manage to find a hole to stick your hand into. If you manage to pull it back. Stick it back in there, i dare you!

It sucks that this DLC is the best out of all DLCs released for Wh1, 2 and 3 imo. It set in motion a string of bad practices coming from CA, and as a result fewer people will buy it. Maybe CA still earned as much or more in terms of revenue, but less people will get the experience the joy that is the Chaos Dwarfs.

That in my book (of grudges) is a net loss and CA should see it as such too.

Price tag aside... The chaos dwarfs are in all fairness strung together by features similar to what we've seen before. But at the same time, these features/mechanics are the perfect fit for these mean little guys! It amazingly put together, enough to warrant praise to the programmers and designers.

I was hesitant to get this game for a long time. My impression was that this was heavy into pvp and thus would lean into that with all its features. While this is partly true, it's very enjoable as a pve game! Pve is not an after thought here. I don't know if the marketing has been skewed too much on the pvp side of things? I can't say, that's just been my impression. If anyone from Stunlock reads this, I feel like a lot of potential players would love this game! If this was communicated better!

As a vampire fantasy game, V Rising absolutely nailed it! You have a lot of powers you'd expect a fantasy vampire to have and so much more! And as you progress through the game, you keep on unlocking new abilities that feel unique and meaningful. One of the main ways you progress through the game, is beating its various bosses and there's a lot of them. They are all unique but naturally some of them, especially some of the early ones feel a bit underwhelming. But that's the exception rather then the rule.

There's one gripe I have however, something that I feel holds the game back significantly...
The world building is both amazing and lackluster. There are so many cool areas that all feel fresh and unique. So many interesting boss designs and enemy designs. But there's almost zero lore or story attached to any of it. There's a cinematic at the start of the game. But it barely tells a story. I want to know more about what this place is, who all these bosses are, what their backgrounds are, how they might be connected to each other, why they do what they do etc. There's practically nothing and it's such a shame. It's a good sign I have this gripe though, I want to be more invested in this game.

Stunlock have made a fantastic vampire game and it's worth your time. But I also feel it could be so much more!