The good 👍
- Good combat where each weapon is well-balanced and not feel like a placeholder, action is well paced, and it's easy to learn the ropes
- Good variety of enemies, and if we feel that game is too easy we can modify the difficulty level
- Optional God Mode, where game applies 20% damage reduction, and it goes up by 2% each time we die (up to 80%). It allows people who are not great with combat, but still want to explore the story, to play the game. (But it would take devs months to implement, and I would feel less special if someone else would enjoy game I am pro at!!1!!! Shouted the exclusion crowd)
- As per the point above. There is surprisingly a lot of story here. Sure, we want to beat the final boss and reach our mum. But all the Gods have their own personality. Sidekick characters like Dusa or Nyx are well worth talking to. Game made me even go and watch some Greek mythology videos and read wiki on it 🤣
- First attempts to escape were taking me close to an hour. After beating the boss for first time it dropped to 40 min. Which is good when we have only a bit of time to spare
- Run can be resumed at checkpoints between biomes. If we beat Tartarus (1st biome), we can exit game from next chamber (which act as healing-up/shop) and resume from the same spot. Which allows for even shorter 10-minute sessions with the game
- Game doesn't have animated cutscenes, but voice acting makes up for it. It is excellent and allow characters to have a lot of emotions. Even when they may have 2 - 3 sprites total
- So many upgrades. Permanent that offer active and passive bonuses. Weapon upgrades. Trinket modifiers. If you like (like me) game where you noticeably grow stronger (and not just know the mechanics better) this game is perfect.

The bad 👎
- We progress story only when we die, as NPCs in house of Hades will have only one new dialogue... it forced me to die on purpose just to progress their storyline 🤣 I stopped to die much after I beat the main boss for the first time...
- If you are not into learning NPCs backstory game can get repetitive fast. Only 3 biomes, each with 10 or so enemies 2 min-bosses and one boss.

Conclusion:

I enjoyed it very much. And I will most probably still go back to it to get true ending, complete rest of side quests, and get all achievements. Good mix of combat, persistent upgrades, story, progression. And even when information about Zagreus is very limited in Greek mythology, I will treat him canonically as son of Hades and Persephone, raised by the Night, being pal with Megaera and having Achilles as his combat teacher 😎

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☑ Good

We play as Zagreus, son of Hades, the prince of the Underworld. We are on the mission to escape, reach the surface and find our mum. Sounds simple, but to reach mid-ending we need to beat game 10 times. And even more if we want to reach the true end. Which is fine, as there is a lot of backstory, interesting NPCs interactions, Gods interactions which keep the game interesting.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☐ Average ☑ Good	If you don't care about backstory the gameplay can be quite repetitive. It is easy to learn the enemies patterns, and later on, with enough passive upgrades, you won't even die until you reach 3rd main boss or end game boss. After each death we end in Hades house, place which act as a hub area where we interact with other NPCs, upgrade our character, select weapon for the next run, upgrade the house with cosmetics. Like I said above, whole run takes 30 - 45 minutes, but it's possible to stop mid-way in area between biomes.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☑ Advanced combat	At it's core we have main and special attack, dash and shooting-projectile abilities. But then each ability can have a God's blessing. We find them as rewards for clearing the map, and there are so many possibilities. Main attack can shoot lightning (Zeus), have higher crit chance (Artemis), push enemies away (Poseidon), freeze enemies (Demeter), deflect projectiles (Athena), weaken enemies (Aphrodite), deal delayed damage (Ares) or deal DoT (Dionysus). That is just for the main attack. Boons for special dash and shooting area also all unique. That creates huge ability once we get a hang of it. Only issue is that which gods we encounter, and which boons are available is random. Second part are passives. More health, extra damage for backstabbing enemies, more dashes, higher chance to get specific loot etc. Those are all bought with experience points gathered during runs.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	Controls are very fluid and enjoyable. We move fast, dash through obstacles, attack enemies, dash away. Enemies don't reach us even when it seems like we were in the clear. Learning how to use evade-dash (right before we are hit) to avoid damage is satisfying. Game is isometric, and there is no jumping.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	There are no real menus. We can select keepsake and weapon before the run. There is one menu where we buy mostly cosmetic decorations for the hub area. And then during run we can bring up button that shows details of our current abilities.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Great	Combat is good, thought can get repetitive. Shield and boxing gloves are extremely close weapon, sword is close range. Spear is medium-range and bow + gun are long range. Even when I generally prefer long range weapons, here it is easier to play with close range. I beat the main boss first time with the shield, by having Athena ultimate ability (invincibility for a few seconds) allowing me to punch the boss extremely fast. Rinse and repeat 🤣 As abilities during run are randomised, we can sometimes end with weird (but still workable) combos. Like shooting thunders or seeking arrows on attack with fast-hitting weapon can deal tons of damage. While having the same boon on slow-loading bow is kind of useless. Getting Poseidon boon that pushes enemies away while attacking makes sense with long range weapons, but not much with shield.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☐ Really basic ☐ Average ☑ Smart and responsive	Enemies are smart. They will move off-screen if they can attack us with long-range attacks, which forces us to close distance. Close range enemies will position themselves, so we can't easily shepherd them and beat into pulp. First two biome bosses are easy. 3rd is annoying, as there is one long-range enemy and one close-range one. Final boss is close range with big area sweeping attack. Each of those bosses require a bit of different technique, especially at the start when we are weak and can easily die.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☑ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☑ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

The good 👍
- Storytelling is top-notch
- Crazy how can you get so attached into a character after few hours of gameplay
- Good cast of characters and voice acting

The bad 👎
- Unskippable dialogues
- Dated graphics and wonky animations

Conclusion:

Good old The Walking Dead. 1st and 2nd season focuses on getting to know Clementine and Lee. There is some exploration, simple point-and-click puzzles/challenges, and a lot of crying/being sad if you have empathy. In 1st season we play as Lee, ex-convict who decides to take care of small 8 y/o Clementine, and take her to a safe place after bundling up with more survivors. In 2nd season we play as Clementine, 13 y/o, living day-to-day, trying to survive. She meets some characters from the 1st game, have to make some tough choices, and ends up having to carry for a newborn child at the end of the game. QTE moments can be a bit annoying, but otherwise game is solid.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☑ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☑ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☑ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

The good 👍
- Many ways to complete the objective
- Complex environmental damage and interactions, e.g. water with electricity, poison in air vents

The bad 👎
- Very repetitive
- Police is overzealous to attack us
- Cash is hard to come by
- Doesn't feel like there is any permanent progress between runs
- Majority of playable characters feel like a filler, adding noise to the screen selection menu
- Melee combat is not great, with slow attacks and huge knock-out effect applied to both you and enemies
- It's possible to hire NPCs to follow and fight along, but due to friendly fire you're more likely to kill all of them randomly than for them to be of much help

Conclusion:

Rogue-lite lite without rewarding progression. I did beat the game, more due to luck than getting better at it or finding optimal gameplay strategy. I think a game like Heroes of Hammerwatch is miles ahead, and would be a more entertaining pick with better combat, progressions and well crafter playable classes.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☑ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☑ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☑ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

The good 👍
- Good, very fast-paced and fluid combat
- Clear map and easy to track collectibles
- Big variety of enemies and ways to kill them
- Weapons are quite generic but they do work well
- Doom guy backstory is interesting and not staple "hero was born through sweat and sacrifice"
- Chainsaw kills to generate more ammo fit well within the combat
- Game looks very good, and music works extremely well with what is happening on screen

The bad 👎
- Weapon upgrade system is a bit of a drag. By the end of the game I had all weapon upgrades, but I would not be able to fulfil required "kill x enemies in y ways with this mode" to fully master a weapon, without the "skip requirement to kill enemies" tokens
- It is not possible to fast travel on the map selection screen
- Praetorian suit upgrades feel more like a filler than something that adds more depth to gameplay
- Even if multiplayer mode is optional, the game requires online connection to Bethesda servers. Game will be dead after developers decide to plug off the servers

Conclusion:

It is a good brainless kill feast. No "deep" storyline about fight for survival or raise of a hero. Just enough to have some background in the otherwise fast-paced and brutal shooter. If a game is too hard for us, it's possible to easily change difficulty. If we die multiple times in the same spot, we can opt in to use sentinel armour, which makes us basically invincible. So highly recommended for anyone who wants to do a bit of destruction 😈

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Details

📘 Story ☑ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☐ Good

We need to stop Daemon invasion. That's all. Our story is to kill 3 priests to stop the invasion. Our past ally (unsurprising) turns out to be our enemy. There are few flashbacks from Doom guy past, the guy must have a few hundred years behind his belt at this point.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☐ Average ☑ Good	The game is mostly linear with semi-open maps. We go to the location, kill all demons, doors open, and we can progress to the next area with some fight. Pretty basic. There are optional collectibles (enemy figures, music tracks) and gameplay-focused pick-ups (cheat codes, weapon mods, suit upgrades, ammo/health/armour upgrade crystals). They make the game easier, but are not required to progress. Each level has a map station that remove the fog of war, and an optional fast travel available at the very end of the map (to load the previous checkpoint and pick up missing collectibles). Fast travel is not available from the mission selection screen, so it is not possible to start the level mid-way just to grab a collectible. If we miss anything, the map needs to be replayed from the start.
🪄 Abilities ☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	There are no magic powers or complicated skill tree. We can run, double jump, dash, wall grab. Abilities are more tied to weapons than to the Slayer himself.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	There are some easy platforming sections that don't require lightning fast reflexes. We grab platforms and edges from quite far away, dashing away from enemy attacks is easy, and we are not stun locked. There are no combo sequences to remember or parrying to do.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Great	The game was made for combat, and it is good in combat. Encounters are fast and unpredictable. Staying still means quick death, so we need to move all the time. Land a few blows on a stronger enemy. Look around for mob enemies to refill ammo/health/armour. Move away from the barrage of rockets that fly our way. Environmental resources are very scarce, and we can't use 'one favourite weapon', as we will run out of ammo very fast. Cutting enemies with the chainsaw generates some ammo. Doing a glory kill on a stunned enemy refills some health. Setting the enemy on fire drops some armour. All those actions have their recovery timers, so we can't easily cheese mobs to refill armour or ammo. It is very hit-and-run gameplay. Each weapon has two mods. e.g. shotgun can throw grenades or work like flak cannon; mini-gun generates a protective barrier or work as a mini turret. Mods are unlocked by finding mod kits on the map, while mod upgrades (faster reload, less charge-up time etc.) are unlocked with weapon points. Weapon points are awarded after beating mandatory and optional level encounters plus level challenges (kill x enemies with a weapon / perform x glory kills on enemy z etc.). So weapons have a layered upgrade system, but not overly complicated. There is a good variety of enemies, where each have their specific role. Mobs (source of ammo and health via glory kills), flying-ranged enemies, tanky enemies, swift-medium range enemies, tanky-close range blade wielding soldiers. Boss encounters are rather basic and there are only a few. They are not grand or precisely designed like Hollow Knight bosses. Just big bullet sponges with powerfull attacks.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☐ Really basic ☐ Average ☑ Smart and responsive	Enemies have complex strategy, and are highly mobile. Even bulky enemies will jump around like kangaroos, so if fat enemy was on the left shelf 2s ago, doesn't mean it will be there when we turn around. Mobs tend to simply move towards us, which makes them more predictable. Rest of the enemies will move away from us, if it gives them better shooting angle or ability to flank us.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☑ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☑ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☑ Good weapons & effects ☑ Good OST ☑ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☑ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☑ Detailed ☑ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

The good 👍
- Strong modding scene which fixes a lot of issue with the game
- It has all the good parts of RPG. Good story, interesting characters
- Skills are mastered by performing them, similarly to skills in Skyrim
- We can't read until we get a quest to go to a scholar to teach us 😂
- Eating and sleeping 'survival' mechanics are not really obstructive

The bad 👎
- "Hyper realistic" bow combat without reticle is an unfunny joke. Fixed via mods.
- Very realistic and complicated melee combat, which feels a bit turn based and thus clunky
- Melee combat is always us versus many opponents. It's possible to die at a high level from peasants, if we don't find a way to obscure enemies' path to fight 1v1 or 2v1. It is not possible to effectively block opponents that are surrounding us, and it can lead to partial stagger-lock
- Henry gets dirty so fast... We can get a bath, go uphill to castle and already be covered in mud tip to toe
- NPCs and animals spawn literally in front of us
- Saving mechanism is annoying. And adds a lot of unnecessary padding to already long game
- Not possible to completely remove fetch quests from the journal
- Speed of walk or horse riding is not the same for us and NPCs, which makes escort missions annoying
- DLC content baked in game but not accessible. There are hound trainers to train our dog, and it's possible to pay them to get skills, but dogs are not available in the main game
- Fast travel is more like autopilot, where the character 'physically' moves from point A to point B. If you 'fast-travel' through a city, and there are a lot of NPCs in the path of the horse, you will be stuck until they clear out. And your character on the 'fast-travel' map will be stuck. It is a bizarre way to implement it
- It is not possible to sleep in 'someone's else space', even when no one is using the spot. The game will allow lying down and start the sleep timer, but then it cancels, and some random NPC says "you can't sleep here", and walk away. I am not riding across the whole map to use the one piece of flour that is not 'occupied' by anyone, when I'm in the military camp and no one uses this dirty pile of hay at the moment...
- Herb picking animations are so slow... thankfully there is mod to skip it entirely
- So many bushes are invisible walls that can't be walked through. Just why. It's not a Pokemon game

Conclusion:

Would I play the game, knowing how it will be? No. It has very good graphic. Detailed map. Interesting setting and non-trivial or predictable story. But then comes boring, repetitive and unfair combat. A lot of game mechanics that waste time. I'm sure I would have way more fun beating Hades and Talos Principle 2 (which would sum up to time required to beat this game with all side quests solved). I did see warnings before playing that combat is bad and clunky (or amazing, and super realistic, if you look at it like this). And it is exactly that. Walking sim with good level design and meh combat.

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☑ Good

We are a son of a smith. Our village is plundered by invaders. Our parents are killed in front of us. But we survive. And take an oath to have revenge. Along the way we listen some boring bits about the Czech Republic and Hungary politics, get to know all the lords of the land and become the best warrior in the province. The game is fairly historically accurate when it comes to reproducing the realities of that time, but the story is fully fictional.

🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☑ Advanced combat	We can run / jump (in quite clunky way), ride horse. We can't swim. We learn and improve skills through practicing, similarly to Skyrim. There is no ability tree, and skills are made available based on level. Most of them feel like a filler, though. Like there are around 10 different combos to unlock for sword combat, but what are they good for when they are interrupted by an enemy attacking us. And 99% of time we fight one vs many, which ends with us getting hit a lot.
📇 Inventory and menus ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☑ Over complicated	The menu doesn't look scaled properly. The right half of the screen on quest log is taken up by unnecessary map. There is so little space for quest updates that quest tasks are displayed on top of the quest list in sort of overlay. The inventory is half-taken by a big image of how Henry is looking. Default item sorting is just obnoxious (and can be fixed with mods). There is no ability to mark items as rubbish and sell in bulk. Detailed weapon and armour stats also work as this weird overlay on top of the items list.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	Love it or hate it. No other option, I'm afraid. I was in the "ugh, not again" camp. At first, combat is impossible, and we will die after being hit twice by a peasant. The game requires a lot of practice fights with wooden swords (it is free at least), before we get enough sword fight and defence skills to not die immediately. There are 6 directions in which we can attack (head, arms, torso sides, central stab) that are decided by where we point the mouse before the attack. And 90% of time, an attack like this will be blocked. So instead we need to point the mouse in one direction, and then change direction mid-way we press LMB to start attack. While still observing where our opponent is holding the sword, do not select the direction they will easily parry. Which rarely worked for me. Another option is to learn combos, which require multiple light/strong attacks in different directions. Which never worked for me. The last option is to train enough with wooden swords to learn how to do parry. Which is what pushed me through this game. Don't try to out-smart enemy, where you will fail 90% of the time. Just wait for the green "parry" shield to be displayed to press "Q" and land one effort-free hit on the enemy. Rinse and repeat. Doesn't work well when there are multiple enemies around, but then the first two ways to fight won't work as well. Bow fight is a joke without aim reticle (the game hides the aim crosshair when the bow is equipped) which makes it impossible to use it, unless you are a masochist. I did archery. To shot bare bow, you need years of extensive training. When people train at the club, they put something bright in the grass to "have something to aim at the arrow" (like orange ping-pong balls), as there is a big offset of where you think the arrow will fly and where it does. You aim at grass 0.5m to the right of the target, and the arrow hits the centre of the target. And devs wanted to re-create a mechanism like this in active combat, by simply removing the reticle 🤯 I did install the mod to restore the aim reticle, because I wanted to enjoy some bow-shooting. Not to ignore bow as unusable tool like most of the people do. Otherwise, even at max possible level, we are quite squeamish and can still die if we are ambushed by 5 peasants with spears. My solution to this was to max out scout ability, and simply avoid all combat. Except for story-related quests, but there we usually have allies with us, so we are not in 1-against-many situation.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☑ Really basic ☐ Average ☐ Smart and responsive	Enemies are brainless. Will either shot arrows at us (if we are far away) or chase us in a straight line if we approach.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☑ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☑ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☑ Fast travel	Details:

The good 👍
- Interesting puzzles that require thinking outside of box
- Hoarding clues, so your partner can't progress
- Can design and play own rooms via the community editor
- Free cross-over rooms (e.g. Portal or Talos Principle) are big and detailed

The bad 👎
- Basic game rooms are a bit claustrophobic
- Some tokens are just annoying (not fun) to find
- Some numerical puzzles feel more like guessing game than "do it based on the clues"
- Game is buggy and level reset may be required to beat it

Conclusion:

A good escape room simulator. Can be played both in single and multiplayer. There is good variety to puzzles, no issues with cooperation. The only negative is that rooms are quite small, and game can bug out, so quest items can't be interacted with. Restarting the level helps, but it means lost time to re-do the same puzzles again.

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Details

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☑ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

The good 👍
- If you're interested in Japanese culture there is a lot of historical lore to learn - Good soundtrack

The bad 👎
- Combat is really basic
- Enemies are not interesting and are very predictable
- There is a lot of padding (like in all Ubisoft games), so it IS a typical open-world "climb a tower" Ubisoft creation
- Story is very standard and ending is easy to predict
- Game requires 3rd party video codec to show cutscenes, that doesn't come with Windows or K-Lite codec pack. Either manually install from Windows Store, or manual installation via PowerShell is required

Conclusion:

The game starts as a mild horror, with us having to sneak around paranatural enemies in order to survive. And quickly turn into FPS with copy-paste enemies, map filled with endless supply of fetch quests and collectibles, and short main storylike. If you like generic "Ubisoft genre" you will be happy with hundreds of graffiti, spirit clumps, food types, clothes, small figures etc. to collect. Otherwise, you will be bored rush through main story and think "oh, it's over already?".

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good

Akito rushes on the motorbike (never a good idea) to the hospital to his dying sister. He gets into a car accident, suffer near-death wounds and is reanimated by a phantom of KK - a former cop who was fighting supernatural phenomena while still alive. Akito wakes up to realize 1) his body is not fully his own any more 2) everyone in Tokyo is gone, after making contact with spooky mist. He does the only logical thing - keep rushing to the hospital to see his sister. On place, it turns out his sister did not disappear in the poof of mist, but is instead kidnapped by clearly out of whack guy in a samurai mask. Mumbling about using Akito's sister to resurrect his family. From this point game obviously focus on Akito fighting city full of "visitors" - creepy being from the underworld - in order to safe his sister. Change from whiny crybaby to man up Schwarzenegger that fight oversized underworld bosses is rushed and not believable. And I won't be surprised if you know how the game ends, after my brief summary of first 1.5h gameplay.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☑ Boring ☐ Average ☐ Good	The city created for this game is very detailed. But also very empty. We can meet: visitors that try to kill us, cats that can sell us some junk (if we care enough to grind money to have funds), and dogs that can be pet. On top of that, there are a lot of spirits that "need just this one thing done for them before they can move on". Which is your usual fetch quests "go-kill-retrieve" slop. We run around the deserted city to the next objective. Use talismans to absorb spirits along the way. Collected spirits are later transferred via a phone booth into the "real world" to restore people there, and we get experience points and some funds in return. Problem is the number of spirits we can hold at a time is very limited, which means we constantly run between phone booths and spirit clusters. Like a person who drank too much coffee and need to constantly run for a toilet. It does break the flow of the game. It is possible to grind for cash and buy more amulets (so we can hold more spirits), but it makes the soul-absorbing loop just a bit less tedious. Not eliminate is entirely. Some experience is also gained from fighting enemies, but then combat is not great. So pick your poison.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☑ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	We can run, jump and have limited "hover" used to jump between rooftops (if we fancy). On top of that we can shoot energy with our hands, but it boils down to having 3 guns: green is assault rifle, blue is shotgun and red is rocket launcher. Ammo is limited, so shots can't be carefree. Especially if we don't spend time unlocking "Ubisoft towers" that contain bracelets, which act as passive damage boost for our abilities. It is possible to increase the ammo capacity, but it requires running around the city to find hidden statues. On top of that we have a bow (the only offensive tool we have at disposal when KK is "not available") but environmental ammo is very scarce, and the main source are cat shops. Which is expensive. There are immobilization or protection amulets, but they suffer from the same issue as arrows - can't be found around, need to be bought. There is a "scan" ability that is used to track spirits in handful of mission, and to highlight collectibles/visitors in 30(base)-50(upgraded)m radius.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☑ Adequate ☐ Fluid and enjoyable	Controls are fine. Thought there is not much that can go wrong. There is no parkour or precise movement required. We run around or go on the rooftops to jump around (easier to avoid visitors that way).
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	The only menu I was using was the map for fast travel. The rest of the interface is focused on reading material on Japanese folklore, or to track hundreds of available collectibles. All long-winged cutscenes can be skipped if we die in the middle of a boss fight.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	Like I mentioned above, there are basically 3 types of weapons. Assault rifle for generic enemies. Rocket launcher for mini-bosses and enemies with shield. And shotgun, which I was using after running out of rockets. We shot with our hands. Enemies are brain-dead and always charge at us. So it's enough to walk back while shooting to end all encounters. Some sneaking is possible, and enemies can be one-hit killed that way. But then usually the rest of the enemies will notice us, and it goes into the usual gun fight. Some enemies have typical close range approach, while others can shoot various objects at us. And it is funny to see visitors looking as high schoolers, throwing classroom objects in our direction. After we deal enough damage we can expose the enemy core. At this point we can shoot it once or twice more to destroy the visitor, or extract it (which takes time and makes us vulnerable for attacks, but also conserves ammo). If we don't destroy the core within few seconds it will reset and visitor will be back at full health. Each weapon have ultimate fire mode, but it mows through ammo like crazy and leaves us dry after few seconds.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☑ Really basic ☐ Average ☐ Smart and responsive	Enemies have no strategy or thought. They just charge at us. The same goes for bosses. And there are no NPCs to see if they would have any brain power.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☑ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☑ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☑ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☑ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: - gameplay is flashy and city is fleshed out and well detailed - Japanese voice acting is in the same style like if you'd watch an anime

The good 👍
- No walking-padding sequences like in the previous title
- Interesting challenges that require thinking, navigating and good communication
- Puzzles can be solved in "easy" way by getting fewer points per challenge, which will make it easier to play with kids
- Puzzles can't be solved or brute forced by one player
- Game doesn't have a "big backstory". Which is good, as the backstory of previous games was not great

The bad 👎
- It has only 3 puzzles, thought it is so cheap it is worth paying 3 EUR for it

Conclusion:

I do like it. Feel less bloated than the previous title. No unskippable cutscenes and no average voice acting. No bland villains to defeat. Just puzzles. Main characters survive a storm at the sea and end up on an island. Need to solve 3 puzzles to build the boat to leave. Each puzzle has a "completion level" which is signified by a ticket obtained at the end. Bronze - silver - gold level. To beat puzzles with brown level we don't need to have perfect communication or think very hard, which makes it more approachable for kids. To obtain gold tickets we need to be way more efficient and organized. There are more figures to describe in "select right character" puzzle, more trials to complete in "one played guides the other" puzzle, and more points to get in "generate points by creation of synergy between tiles on a map" puzzle. While previous game had all-or-nothing approach.

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Details

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☑ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: - I saw people complain that game is buggy, but I did not saw any bugs myself

The good 👍
- This game is less buggy and more polished than the previous games in the series, but it occasionally still needs to be restarted to reset a buggy puzzle
- Puzzles are interesting and less cumbersome, except the "whale-sound" challenge
- No issue with always-on mic that needs to be changed in the settings

The bad 👎
- Story is really meh
- Voice acting is very average

Conclusion:

Asymetrical Puzzle game with improved graphics and average voice acting. Some puzzles rely less on the partner, and could be solved single-handedly. Which is not a good thing when it makes your partner a bit obsolete. It is the longest game in the series, but some of the gameplay is spent on backtracking and watching unskippable animations. It does not negate the fact that the co-op puzzle genre sits in an abandoned corner, and it would be hard to find a better game in the genre. So I do recommend it, but you need to know that it is not without flaws.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☑ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☑ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on a potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures/geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: Game is still buggy and requires checkpoint restart to continue

The good 👍
- This game is so bad you start to enjoy how broken it is
- All armors are fully color customizable
- Depends on your preference, being so powerful to OHK mobs and mowing through bosses before they can finish their introductory lines can be seen as a positive or negative
- Loot constantly feels like a substantial improvement, not useless grind
- Enemy design is given way more attention than I would expect from a low-budget title, with each level having unique designs
- Long list of abilities to choose from
- Resuming game mid-level doesn't restart the level progress

The bad 👎
- Game is abandoned by the developers
- Can select any race for any class, even when it ends up not being able to aim (bulky lizard race as an archer obfuscates the aiming reticle)
- Platforming is not great, and you will repeatedly miss a jump and die
- In one instance, the same annoying huge damage-area boss spawned 2-3 times during one fight. Repeatedly. Which meant I had to kill 3 instances of the same boss. He was not supposed to respawn mid-fight and re-say his dialogue 🤣
- Voice acting is painful to listen to

Conclusion:

This is the type of game "that is so bad it makes it funny and entertaining". The first level is long and slow, then it gets ridiculously easy when you can mow through both mobs and bosses. I had to ask people I played with not to attack the boss, for the boss to have time to say their storylines. But then sometimes the boss keeps saying dialogue lines even after it's dead. Big difficulty spikes do happen, and the game is not well balanced. I have beaten the last mission before I was able to beat the second-to-last, as enemies there were OHK me. There are slight geometry problems during platforming. Or a pit we need to jump into to progress, has a 90% chance to kill us due to the fall damage. Enemies can do crazy break dancing after they are killed.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☑ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☑ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☑ Can run on a potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☑ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures/geometry problems ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: Imp enemy has a very loud and annoying dying sound