HIGH Combat is way more satisfying than the usual RPG.

LOW Enemy variety is somewhat lacking.

WTF 56 hours of play and I didn’t find a single decent greathammer.

Plague. Plague never changes… even when it originates on a distant island, turns people into homicidal plants and spreads across the land threatening to engulf all of civilization if not torn out by the roots.

Wake up hero, looks like we have a dreamscourge to burn.

Taking place within the Pillars of Eternity universe, the player is hardly the standard RPG protagonist who begins as an unknown hero of humble origins. Not only are they the personal envoy of the Emperor sent overseas to root out the cause of the dreamscourge plague wreaking havoc, they were also touched at birth by an unknown god, resulting in their head sprouting a customizable amount of fungus ranging from a few cosmetic markings to a veritable forest cascading down their face.

As if that’s not enough, major political forces are at play in the background. A mass immigration is forcing the native population into shantytowns, and a rogue military element are more than happy to bring this lawless nation to heel by butchering everything in sight. Our fungally-blessed hero has the freedom to fight back against injustice or profit from it wholesale, making loyal companions or bitter enemies along the way, all while having an internal conversation with a new and unexpected voice in their head.

After initially wrecking on a small island just short of their destination, players are given a brisk tutorial on how Avowed works. The game can be seen from first- or third-person perspective and despite wearing half my body weight in plate armor, exploration via parkour is heavily encouraged. It’s common to leap across yawning gaps, haul oneself up ledges and duck under waterfalls to collect any loot squirreled away within.

Avowed doesn’t take place within a a truly open world, instead opting to whisk players to new regions via the overworld map, but each area is expansive and absolutely filled with tons of loot, sidequests and secrets to discover. Whether hunting down bounties or poring over treasure maps, there’s plenty to take care of while out romping through the world.

It’s a dangerous environment out there, and combat is particularly impressive in the flexibility it allows. While I settled on a warrior build wielding a giant two-handed axe, it’s entirely possible to dart around the battlefield wielding a pistol and a magical grimoire in either hand, blasting lead into the bad guys before broiling them alive with flame spells during the reload. Or perhaps players would prefer to be stealthy, sneaking up on unaware groups and thinning the herd by shanking them in the back, one by one.

Charging up massive power attacks, parrying the strikes of enemies twice the player’s size and dancing in and out of danger with quick dashes all just feel right. Rather than simple sword swings or outcomes that depend on behind-the-scenes virtual dice rolls, Avowed‘s melee is surprisingly gratifying for an open-ish world RPG.

As players level up they naturally obtain access to better skills and bonuses, and they’re not locked in to just one archetype — they’re able to mix and match skills and buffs from the Warrior, Ranger and Wizard trees at will. If the build goes awry or doesn’t perform as expected, paying a paltry sum in the upgrade menu will allow for a complete respec at any time.

I will say that the loot pool doesn’t cater to all players equally though. I wound up swimming in magical swords and shields by game’s end, and yet never once found an enchanted greathammer after more than fifty hours of play. Given how I initially wanted to build my character as a stun-focused berserker, that totally sucked, despite finding plenty of neat stuff otherwise.

Avowed‘s performance on the XBX was surprisingly solid in performance mode, with a smooth framerate that only stuttered or dropped while under load. It may not be rock solid, but it’s more than adequate, especially considering that the environments are nicely detailed, featuring lush scenery, barren hellscapes and even more in between.

My quibbles with Avowed are few.

During the prerelease review window, I did notice a few of the quest chains in the third major area did break prematurely. More fundamentally, as good as the combat is, the lack of enemy variety does become an issue in later stages. There are only so many humanoids, beetles and bears a player can kill before wishing something else was being crushed under their mace instead, and each enemy group encounter becomes lamentably predictable.

Avowed may also be a little too streamlined for stat-obsessed RPG players. While there is scope for setting up combinations of spells, debuffs and companion specializations, simply wading in with an axe and chopping everyone in the head can usually do the job just fine.

The final thing about Avowed is a little more fundamental — as fine as it is, it doesn’t break any new ground. It does everything it sets out to do, but there are few surprises in store for fans of the genre, and the scaled-down and guided approach that comes about as a result of a not-truly-open world lends it a slightly compartmentalized, more predictable and borderline regimented quality that some might find less than ideal.

Despite those complaints, I had a great time with Avowed. The dialogue is well-written throughout, the storyline keeps things interesting, choices and optional sidequests can have big impacts on events as a whole, and perhaps most importantly of all, everything eventually wraps together in a satisfying manner that pays respect to the player’s various choices made throughout their adventure. Plus great-feeling combat!

Avowed is just comfort-food adventuring all ’round, and if there’s more of this universe to come in the future, I’ll signing up for the next journey in a heartbeat.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios. It is currently available on XBX/S and PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the XBX. Approximately 56 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is provisionally rated M and contains Extreme Violence, Drugs, Use of Alcohol/Tobacco, and Strong Language. While it’s not particularly gory in combat, there is a fair amount of blood and nasty stuff to be found throughout. F-bombs, corpses lying with half their body missing or spilling out, the usual.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. I couldn’t see any at least, which is odd considering the exceptional amount of other accessibility options found in the menus.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. The subtitles can be altered and/or resized, with a very generous amount of options for tinkering with background opacity, font sizes and the like. There are no significant audio cues. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

The post Avowed Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Kreia remains a high point of writing and voice acting in videogames.

LOW Launching without the cut content restored. 

WTF Several crashes resulting in lost progress!

I said in my review of the The Force Unleashed that certain games in the Star Wars franchise did a great job of exploring the mythos, moving focus away from the Skywalker dynasty and instead looking at how the force and the Jedi/Sith wars affect the galaxy. Knights of the Old Republic 2 is one such game. 

As a quick history lesson, the first iteration of KOTOR 2 was released in 2004 and developed by Obsidian, not Bioware, who crafted the first KOTOR. Because Obsidian was only given a year to develop a sequel, the result became known as an often-broken, unfinished and unpolished experience. For an in-depth look at the game, you can read the full GameCritics review from 2005 here.

As a result of this rushed development, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the original. However, over the course of a handful of replays I grew to appreciate it, despite its flaws. After learning that this port would reintegrate cut content that was missing from the original, I figured it was a good time to revisit.

Unfortunately, this version takes the concept of ‘faithful port’ and runs with it to an almost-comic degree — much like its original release, during my time with it I found it to be crash-prone and I lost progress on more than one occasion. There were even widespread reports of players being unable to progress the story due to a bug. For a game as infamously rough as this one, releasing a port in this state is unbelievable.

There’s also a big missed opportunity regarding the original’s cut content, which has been available for the PC version via mods.

Part of the selling point of this Switch port is that this content will be included — emphasis on “will.” That’s right, it’s not actually in this port yet! The word is that it’s to be available sometime in Q3 2022, but nothing concrete as of yet. As a result, the ‘unfinished’ feeling of the original’s plotline is carried over here with notable script gaps still left unfilled.

The state of this port, both technically and artistically, is a shame because it would otherwise be a great companion piece to the original, with the story being its biggest plus.

This adventure tells the tale of the Exile, whom the player controls. They’ve been cut off from the Force for unknown reasons, and the Jedi are almost wiped out as a result of a Sith-led hunt. The Exile is then tasked with finding the last of the Jedi council and bringing order to a broken galaxy.

This is a fine start, but where KOTOR 2 truly excels are the characters. The Exile is an interesting (if typically cypher-like) representation of whoever the player decides they are, and shaped by choices that align them to the dark or the light side. However, the supporting cast soars thanks to a return of a couple of favorites, such as the homicidal assassin droid HK-47 and others serving as fascinating deconstructions of Star Wars archetypes, such as the Wookie Hanhurr, and the resentment he holds towards his life debt.

Apart from those, the true highlight has to be one of the best-written characters in the whole Star Wars saga, Kreia.

Kreia plays the role of the Exile’s mentor. However, unlike other role models who extol the virtues of the force, whether light or dark, Kreia detests the Force and its hold over people’s freedom. Via excellent voice acting, Kreia often expresses disgust to the player character if their actions land too far on either side of the light/dark side divide, and there are many times when she’ll interact with side characters without the Exile’s knowledge, manipulating them to her will. It’s refreshing to have someone openly question the Force in a way that’s rarely done elsewhere in the franchise, and because she is such a fascinating character, she had a permanent place in my active party.

Gameplay-wise, this port of KOTOR 2 retains the trademark Bethesda gameplay loop seen in the original KOTOR and many of their other titles — visit a new area, pick up side missions, continue the story and move to a new area. It’s familiar, but remains interesting due to the well-acted and well-written dialogue.

The turn-based combat involves players lining up actions such as weapon- or Force-based abilities to attack enemies. Players can also switch between characters to use different abilities. This aspect hasn’t aged as well as the story, as it feels far too simplistic (I often found myself sleepwalking through combat by spamming the “Flurry” ability) but it’s inoffensive and functional.

KOTOR 2 did move away from its prequel by introducing a system where the Exile can influence party members by carrying out actions that will appeal to certain characters while also repelling others. This serves as an interesting addition to the light/dark system by forcing the player to consider how teammates may react to their choices. Successfully increasing influence levels result in companions revealing more about themselves and their pasts, but can also result in non-Force characters becoming Jedi. Ultimately, it leads to a good degree of replayability as it’s almost impossible to gain influence over every character on a single playthrough.

Despite 18 years passing between the original and this port, it feels like not much has changed at all — it remains a heavily flawed but interesting work. Unfortunately, I was hoping that it would right the wrongs of the original version, especially in terms of the additional content, but fails to do so. That’s a bit disappointing, but even with the game being re-released in the state it is, it remains more enjoyable and refreshing than most of Star Wars‘ more recent offerings. 

Disclosures: This game is developed by and published by Aspyr.  This port is currently available on Switch but is also available on PC and Xbox. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on Switch. Approximately 50 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated and contains Mild Blood, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence. The official ESRB description reads as follows: This is a role-playing game in which players assume the role of a Jedi struggling to reconnect with the Force. Players explore fantasy locations, interact with various characters, perform missions, and engage in melee-style combat in a sci-fi setting. Characters use blasters, swords, and light sabers to fight enemies (e.g., droids, republic soldiers, Sith figures). Battles are highlighted by blaster fire, impact sounds, and explosions. A handful of scenes depict corpses with bloody wounds and burn marks. Some female characters are designed with revealing outfits (e.g., low-cut tops, deep cleavage, partially exposed buttocks); the dialogue also contains brief suggestive material (e.g., “No tougher than enduring your false sympathy while you’re staring at my chest.”).

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available. 

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles. (See examples above.) They cannot be resized. As a turn-based game during combat, KOTOR 2 does not require fast reactions or audio cues. This experience is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: No, this game’s controls are not remappable. This game does not offer a controller map diagram, but movement is on the left stick. Camera is the right stick. L pauses the action. R switches player characters. ZR and LR switch between non playable characters. Left and right on the d-pad switches between types of abilities. Up and down on the d-pad switches between abilities in that category. A is the action button.

The post Knights Of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (2022) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The writing continues to be outstanding.

LOW Some sidequests feel like obnoxious padding.

WTF No one else notices the infected citizens? No one?

Halcyon Helen is an intergalactic star. She’s the main character of what The Outer Worlds calls serials — essentially, soap operas for their universe. She’s looked up to by many for providing investigative shows people that help people forget their busy and miserable lives. And at the beginning of The Outer Worlds’ final DLC entry Murder on Eridanos — she’s also dead.

While on a promotional tour for a new liquor brand, Helen is tragically murdered by an unknown assailant in her hotel’s ballroom. The planet’s authorities waste no time in hiring the best freelancer in the galaxy — the player! — to investigate her murder, and so the mystery begins!

From the jump, developer Obsidian’s clever writing is on full display as one of the first steps in this DLC is taking a video call from Eridanos authorities as they attempt to hire me for the investigation. The messy call plays out in hilarious fashion as key players try to undermine each other to get on my good side. Despite the grim subject matter, the characterization and writing is witty and upbeat throughout. A few throwaway lines by extremely low-level NPCs even had me setting my controller down because I was laughing so hard. Obsidian, the writing staff and voice actors continue to bring their A-game.

Mechanically, Murder on Eridanos doesn’t deviate from what players should expect from The Outer Worlds. The existing pillars of gameplay are exploring, shooting and talking, but because the DLC focuses on solving the mystery, Eridanos emphasizes exploration and talking over shooting. Combat is still sprinkled throughout, but I think if Obsidian had taken a risk by including very little (or no) combat it would’ve paid off with a more streamlined and cohesive package.

Talking works well in Eridanos because the key suspects feel real and multifaceted. Each suspect could have reasons for wanting to murder Helen and must be vetted to determine who had the most compelling motive. On top of that, Eridanos does a great job of fleshing out Helen — at a certain point the celebrity persona of Halcyon Helen ends and the real woman behind her begins. As I interviewed hotel staff, her costars, an athlete she dated and more, I began to understand that Helen wasn’t just a bimbo actress. Was she possibly murdered due to something dark going on behind the scenes?

However, other parts of the script aren’t as compelling or cohesive. One interesting subplot involves citizens’ minds being altered by a parasite and the intrigue is only exacerbated by no one on the planet seeming to notice. This infection occasionally culminates in NPCs going full aggro and needing to be killed, but I felt strange murdering these ordinary people just for falling victim to a parasite. Although the issue is eventually addressed, Eridanos doesn’t present a way to incapacitate these poor people, and because no one else on the planet seemed to care, I couldn’t ask anyone about it.

Also the second half of Eridanos dragged for me. Because much emphasis is placed on going back and forth across the planet to interview suspects, I found myself staring at a lot of loading screens as I fast-traveled everywhere. Go to the map, fast travel, load screen, enter a building, load screen, talk to someone and exit, load screen, fast travel somewhere else, load screen.

This was all punctuated by a few completely unnecessary sidequests that boil down to tasks with literally no story impact. Eridanos took me about 10 hours to complete, but some of the fat could’ve been trimmed for a leaner experience. Of course, the side quests are optional, but it was hard to tell which would flesh out the bigger picture on Eridanos and which existed only to pad the gameplay, so I ended up doing all of them thinking that they’d serve the story in some way — but they didn’t.

Murder on Eridanos is an interesting way to put a bow on The Outer Worlds. Instead of a balls-to-the-wall action finale, it offers up a slower-paced mystery that showcases what Obsidian is best at — writing and acting. Although it makes some missteps and the pacing could be better, I enjoyed uncovering the mystery. Regardless of all else, Obsidian is nearly in a league of their own when it comes to writing. and experiencing more of their work is always enjoyable.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Obsidian and published by Private Division This copy of the DLC was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PS4. Approximately 10 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M with descriptors for Strong Language, Intense Violence, and Blood and Gore. The official ESRB description is as follows: “This is an action role-playing game in which players assume the role of a colonist in a space colony. From a first-person perspective, players explore an open-world environment, interact with characters, complete mission objectives, and battle alien creatures. Players use blasters, machine guns, and shotguns to kill creatures and human enemies in frenetic combat; action is highlighted by slow-motion and blood-splatter effects. Players can also shoot and kill civilians, though this may negatively affect players’ progress. Some attacks result in decapitation and dismemberment of creatures. The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” are heard throughout the game.“

Colorblind Modes: According to Obsidian, the game was explicitly designed to be playable independent of color information. However, it has no colorblind modes selectable..

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue, cinematics, and combat barks are reflected in text and visual interface elements. User Interface and subtitle text can be changed among 11 sizes. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay, though some enemies may attack players from behind. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: On PS4, the controls are not customizable, however the game has four control maps with a right- or left-hand option available for each setting. Y and X Axes can be standard or inverted and many control stick sensitivity and dead zone sliders are available.

The post The Outer Worlds: Murder On Eridanos Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Excellent writing, dialogue, and visuals.

LOW Superfluous combat, hard-to-read UI.

WTF Please give the man in the moon mascot head a hug.

Think of a word people might use to describe RPG worlds, and “immersive” often comes up. An odd term, it sometimes means that the game world being described feels “real” — like a place one might want to visit and live in.

Using that definition, Halcyon, the setting of The Outer Worlds, is decidedly not immersive. It might even be the opposite of immersive. For the life of me, I can’t see it as a real place, and have no desire to visit or live there for any length of time because the place, frankly speaking, is a hellhole.

Colonized by a corporate-owned expedition, Halcyon has spent so long under the heel of unfettered capitalistic greed that bootlicking is the only way of life its people know. Its workers toil under inhumane conditions while contractually obligated to spout company slogans in their everyday speech. An entire religion has sprung up around keeping people content with their HR-mandated place in “The Great Plan”, and when they die, their corpses go into debt paying rent on their own gravesites.

This situation is ripe for a talented outsider to disrupt, and as a newly-revived, newly-arrived member from a long-lost colony ship bound for Halcyon, the player is just the person to do it.

What’s actually involved in accomplishing that goal is the sort of experience one might expect from a team with credits for both Fallout and Fallout: New Vegas. Players will journey across the galaxy, visit its communities, take the measure of their dilemmas and solve them through a mix of stealth, combat, skill-checks and dialogue choices. Of course, being similar to two games that are among the greatest RPGs of all time is hardly an insult and The Outer Worlds shares many of their most interesting qualities, even if it doesn’t seek to surpass them.

What sets Halcyon apart from the nuclear wastelands of California and Nevada is tone and scope. Where Fallout and New Vegas skewered mid-century Americana via blacky comedic post-apocalyptic melancholy, The Outer Worlds is a sillier caricature of an unfettered corporate capitalism where not even idealistic, proto-socialist radicals are free from being satirized. At times this can come across as a pernicious sort of “both-sides-ism”, but the overall effect works to promote the theme that even the best choices in a compromised environment can only be imperfect.

Speaking vaguely to avoid spoilers, one early quest had me determining the fate of a settlement that had divided into two factions — one consisting of workers escaping the awful status quo, and the other struggling to make ends meet with only half of the available labor pool. I had to make a choice or else quit the game entirely, and one path seemed the clear winner in terms of ideals.

However, I also got relevant input from my party members who were from the community in crisis and they could see things more clearly than me, an outsider who had literally walked into town that day. They challenged what initially seemed to be the ‘right’ thing, and reminded me that my choice — whatever it might be — would have consequences for the people I didn’t favor as much as the ones I did. I can’t say more without spoiling a key decision, but it’s rare that a game can get me to second-guess a decision from more than a “what does this path get me?” perspective.

Smaller, more intimate scenarios are threaded through the spaces between The Outer Worlds‘ mainline morality plays, particularly involving the game’s six recruitable companions.

Though initially like off-brand stand-ins for the cast of Firefly, over time and through personal quests and conversations, they reveal their depth — a man of faith with a dark past reveals why he’s so hung up on helping people find their place in “The Great Plan”. An eager would-be revolutionary confronts the tension between the wise words of his mentor and the hypocrisy of his actions, and Obsidian’s writers have also once again realized that romantic subplots are better experienced from a distance. It’s much more interesting and endearing to help someone else hook up than to be the center of attention.

Mechanically, The Outer Worlds offers an innovative twist with its skill system — early-game skill points can be invested to raise entire groups of skills at once (for example, “stealth skills” includes lockpicking, hacking, and sneaking around), allowing players freedom to dabble and experiment with builds before committing to something more specialized later on.

However, while The Outer Worlds is a strong entry into Obsidian’s catalog, some things don’t quite land. For instance, the combat never rises above ‘serviceable’, and the balance of loot and power seems off — fighting becomes too easy, too soon, at least on Normal difficulty. Optional “survival” difficulty levels exist that add concerns like finding food and getting sleep, but they don’t add much to the experience since Worlds isn’t particularly strong as a world-sim.

Another issue is the difficult-to-read interface. Even after a patch that allows players to increase the overall size of in-game text, things are still hard to read. Not even playing up-close in PC-style conditions fully alleviated the issue, and I can only imagine it being harder for console players sitting feet (and not inches) away from their TV screens. Manually editing configuration files to force the UI to scale up presented a workaround, but these should be features considered at the point of development rather than things left for players to hack into the system.

That said, such issues are relatively minor blemishes on an excellent effort from Obsidian, and though The Outer Worlds doesn’t surpass its predecessors by offering a world worth visiting over and over, the adventure it presents is more than worth the time spent.

Disclosures: This game is developed by Obsidian and published by Private Division. It is currently available on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This copy of the game was obtained by paid download and reviewed on PC. Approximately 46 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode over multiple replays. There are no multiplayer modes. The game was completed.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M with descriptors for Strong Language, Intense Violence, and Blood and Gore. The official ESRB description is as follows: “This is an action role-playing game in which players assume the role of a colonist in a space colony. From a first-person perspective, players explore an open-world environment, interact with characters, complete mission objectives, and battle alien creatures. Players use blasters, machine guns, and shotguns to kill creatures and human enemies in frenetic combat; action is highlighted by slow-motion and blood-splatter effects. Players can also shoot and kill civilians, though this may negatively affect players’ progress. Some attacks result in decapitation and dismemberment of creatures; one area depicts a dismembered corpse amid a large bloodstained environment. Cutscenes depict additional acts of violence: a man shooting himself in the head; a character executed off-screen. The words “f**k,” “sh*t,” and “a*shole” are heard throughout the game.“

Colorblind Modes: According to Obsidian, the game was explicitly designed to be playable independent of color information. However, it has no colorblind modes selectable.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: All dialogue, cinematics, and combat barks are reflected in text and visual interface elements, though subtitle text is small and difficult to read, even after a patch allowing larger sizes. Modification of configuration files on PC allow the user interface to be scaled up to manually increase text size. There are no audio cues needed for gameplay, though some enemies may attack players from behind.

Remappable Controls: This game’s button controls are fully remappable. Some UI functions available for mouse-and-keyboard controls do not appear to be available for players using gamepads.

The post The Outer Worlds Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Telling Rymergand to get stuffed.

LOW Battles that unnecessarily extend the length of the DLC by hours.

WTF The Memory Hoarder. The screaming.

As a Watcher, someone who can communicate with the souls of the dead, the player is naturally in high demand in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. More warrior than medium, the Watcher is contacted for everything from bounty hunting to saving the world from a rampaging god.

There have been three DLCs released for Deadfire that are no exception to this rule — everyone wants a piece of the Watcher, especially the Gods of Eora in Beast of Winter, Seeker, Slayer, Survivor, and The Forgotten Sanctum. Each DLC deals with different gods, who either want their body back, want to escape the in-between, or want to freeze the entire world in ice. They’re all bananas. 

The first Pillars of Eternity was Kickstarted for $4 Million, capitalizing on a renewed interest in isometric RPGs that were as impressive as those from the ‘90s. The successor to classic games like Baldur’s Gate (1998), PoE lived up to expectations–an epic title with intricate, beautifully detailed environments and some of the best game writing I’ve ever read.

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, released three years later in 2018, picks up when a monumental statue beneath the Watcher’s castle (newly possessed by the rogue god Eothas) decides to go on an adventure, exploding from the ground and killing just about everyone in the Watcher’s employ. The Watcher dies too–in a way–but is revived as captain of the Defiant, sailing through the chain of island nations known as the Deadfire.

Deadfire deftly tackles big, capital-T themes like colonialism and imperialism, putting the Watcher at the center of a conflict between races and factions. This review assumes that the player has been through most, if not all, of the base game, though there aren’t spoilers for the main quest.

In addition to playing through each of the three DLCs, I also played in Beta Turn-Based mode. Turn-based is radically different compared to the fast-paced Real-Time mode. Often, characters are so far from enemies that it takes several turns just to get into the fray. There’s no altering the actions that characters have queued outside of their turn and, when enemies move, Area of Effect spells frustratingly miss their mark. The speed gives the player time to think and strategize, but it doesn’t add anything that pausing in real-time can’t already provide. I would prefer if this mode could be turned on and off at will, rather than only at the beginning of a new game.

The Beast of Winter is available when the Watcher leaves Port Maje. The Watcher receives a letter from the far north of the Deadfire. Vatnir, who signs his letters High Harbinger of Dusk, wishes to invite the player to a feast in his or her honor. He also mentions that the ice of the Dead Floe is ever-expanding and “shall consume all,” which he seems sort of excited about? Upon investigation, it’s discovered that a pale elf cult has gathered to worship the Vytmádh, the entrance to the realm of Rymergand (the god of death).

Beasts is a great example of how Obsidian’s writers are masters of their craft, using evocative story-book interludes paired with stunning illustrations. Conversations have great zingers, some of which will get the player killed but are totally worth it. Beasts also gives the player the opportunity to witness events only heretofore mentioned, expanding upon the already-extensive lore.

Equal parts funny and horrifying, The Forgotten Sanctum oozes personality. On the Black Isle, the Archmagi are following the wizard Maura who has disappeared into a giant subterranean library. Maura’s wizarding specialty is tentacles… The environments are therefore threaded with repulsive fleshy bits, part of the body of Wael that she seeks to awaken. Sanctum has some of the most disgusting bosses I’ve seen in PoE. Underneath the library, in a pit echoing with the screams of the dead, is the Memory Hoarder, who I won’t describe. It’s too disturbing. Later, Wael’s body is revealed to be a giant tentacled eye. Yuck.

There is, however, enough levity provided by the characters to outweigh the nasty. Tayn is a lovable goofball and Fassina is a great (understandably surly) addition to the party. There are also a pair of foulmouthed imps who function as shop and inn that add color to the story in bizarre ways.

Sanctum has an impressive set of maps if at times confusing. Being a library, however, there are a series of book placing puzzles that are boring and sometimes lead to shortcuts for already accessible areas that really didn’t need the extra complication.

All the DLC quests are long, too, padded with what feel like endless battles. These kinds of encounters, which are difficult even in Storytime mode, stretch out quests unnecessarily. It took me only fifteen hours to get into the third act of the game’s main quest, less than the some 20-25 hours to play through all the DLC. While these new quests fail because they’re so battle-heavy, the stories in Beasts and The Forgotten Sanctum are still complex and engrossing.

This is not so with Seeker, Slayer, Survivor. Players who are big fans of the battle system in PoE, which is admittedly not my favorite thing about it, will enjoy the gladiator environment of Seeker. The island of Kazuwari is failing and it’s up to the Watcher to become the champion of the Huana god Taomawhei by fighting a series of battles against enormous monsters and other challengers in an arena called the Crucible. Something is wrong with the crucible and the challenge is to figure out what. However, there’s not much else to the story and when all is said and done it has an unsatisfactory and rather abrupt ending.

While Seeker disappointed me, it finds some purchase in that it appeals to a different kind of player than myself, one who is interested in testing their skills in numerous battles. These additions to Deadfire, with the exception of Seeker, are well rounded, engrossing stories with lively characters that build worlds within the larger game. These stories have a profound affect on the way the player understands the larger game and it’s lore and are well worth playing.

— Gabriella Santiago-Vancak

Disclosures: This game is developed by Obsidian and published by Versus Evil. It is currently available on Windows, MacOS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, XBox One. This copy of the game was obtained via Steam and reviewed on the MacOS. Approximately 25 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Mature and contains Blood and Gore, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence. As per the ESRB for Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire: This is a role-playing game in which players control a party of characters as they complete quests around a fantastical island region. From a top-down perspective, players interact with townspeople and engage in real-time battles with humans and creatures (e.g., boars, skeletons, elementals). Characters use swords and magic attacks to defeat enemies in brief, frenetic combat; battles include large splashes of blood, and sometimes, chunks of flesh. A handful of game environments depict severed limbs and torsos littering the ground. During the course of the game, players can hire courtesans after selecting flirtatious dialogue choices (e.g., “I wouldn’t mind seeing you again…so long as you come with coin.”); other text and conversations include suggestive/sexual references (e.g., “[He] accused a man of…indiscretions with his own sister”; “The two of you tumble into your bunk, and you pass a few sweaty hours in one another’s company”; “[He] called someone a sister-f**ker.”). A bath-house sequence briefly depicts nude characters with bare breasts, as well as male genitalia.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game is easily played without sound. There are no cues, particularly in battle, that can’t be made visible on screen. Some characters make comments that are not subtitled but they are non-essential comments. Any unique companion dialogue is subtitled. There is text that can be magnified up to 130%.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls. Additionally, almost all controls can be accessed via buttons on screen.

The post Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire DLC Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The game nails the feel and tone of a South Park episode perfectly, minus all the bleeping. It's hilarious.

LOW The occasional bout of slowdown can be annoying.

WTF This whole game is one giant WTF moment. From Aborted Nazi Zombie Fetuses, to a return trip up Mr. Slave's colon, Stick of Truth is batshit crazy.

Breathe easy, fans of South Park–the long awaited Stick of Truth has finally arrived, and more importantly, it's one of those rare licensed games that's actually good.

After clearing what could have been several fatal hurdles (including the bankruptcy of publisher THQ) the game arrived on store shelves none the worse for wear. This role-playing game (RPG) from developer Obsidian is hands-down the most faithful videogame recreation of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's beloved Comedy Central series. It also might be the funniest title in the medium's history for players who have the stomach for its irreverent, profane, and offensive sensibilities.

Players take control of the genre's cliched mute protagonist, a new kid who's just moved into the small town of South Park and quickly labeled "Douchebag". Our hero runs into Butters and Cartman, who recruit him to take part in their epic fantasy game, wherein he'll be tasked with performing duties for Cartman's Grand Wizard of The Kingdom of Kupa Keep (yes, Cartman is the Grand Wizard of the KKK…) in their war against Stan and Kyle's elf faction. The stakes are high because the Stick of Truth guarantees its possessor all the power in the universe…

The Stick of Truth essentially serves as a super-sized episode of the show. Obsidian and the South Park team have done a magnificent job of recreating the program's animation style for the game, to the point where it often felt like I was controlling an episode. Fan-service is the order of the day, with essentially every major and minor South Park character showing up at some point. This is great for followers of the show, but could be a little overwhelming to newcomers, or those who've only sporadically followed the series.

So, Obsidian nailed the tone of the show, but does Stick of Truth play well? The answer there is a little more complicated.

The title is essentially a "lite" RPG, meaning it has a lot more in common with classic era games than modern entries. It's a turn-based affair wherein our hero can team up with one of five other characters to take on enemies. Each of the five allies has their own special moves, strengths, and so on. I will admit to being a bit disappointed that I could only have one other party member in combat, but the inclusion of the ability to swap them on the fly during battle at least alleviates some of the issue.

What's slightly more frustrating is the combat itself. The battles are turn-based, but require button presses at specific instances to block or deal decent damage. This isn't too complicated during a one-hit attack or defense, but when players are required to block multiple hits, it becomes a problem because the inputs don't always register the way they should. Fortunately, most of the encounters are simple enough that mastering the combat system isn't necessary, but it can be frustrating during some of the boss encounters (particularly Al Gore) wherein Secret Service Agents like to shoot without giving the player a proper cue to block.

Combat aside, Parker, Stone, and the guys at Obsidian clearly know their game conventions, and Stick of Truth skewers them regularly. There's a section devoted to making fun of modern gaming's ubiquitous audio logs, odes to the old Simon handheld game, DDR-inspired segments for bard songs, and so on. The send-ups are well-implemented and genuinely clever.

Given Obsidian's track record for buggy games, I was a little worried before starting, but I'm happy to report that most of those concerns were unfounded. This title is not without minor technical issues including a glitch where it's impossible to move left or right for a few seconds after opening chests, and there's some noticeable slowdown on the PS3 version, but I didn't experience any game-breaking or game-crashing bugs. Kudos on that.

For fans of South Park, The Stick of Truth was certainly worth the wait. Finally being able to explore the town (and Mr. Slave's colon) while fighting elves, Nazi zombies, and aborted fetuses is something fans have wanted since the show made its debut back in 1997. That it manages to play well while also mixing in the fanservice viewers expect is worthy of praise. The gameplay portion is the weaker of the two halves here, but it's not so unbalanced as to ruin the experience. Grabbing this title is a no-brainer for the show's legions of devotees. Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS3. Approximately 20 hours of play was devoted to single-player modes (completed 1 time) and there are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains blood and gore, mature humor, drug references, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, and violence. Look at that list, parents. Clearly, this is not for kids, even though the animation style will captivate them. This game is a lot like the unrated film version-it's hilarious, but the humor is very adult.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: South Park: The Stick of Truth comes with full subtitle options, so gamers won't have to miss out on a single joke. You will, however, miss out on hearing Taco Flavored Kisses on the soundtrack.

The post South Park: The Stick of Truth Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

So, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Honestly, I blame Fallout: New Vegas. In fact, I blame it for anything else I haven't gotten done over the last couple of weeks. It's a pretty fantastic title.

My full review of the game went up, so you can see what I had to say about it. While you're at it, feel free to compare and contrast my view with Sparky Clarkson's writeup.

Also, for those who are interested, I will be posting full reviews for all of the DLC add-ons. At the moment, the first two are done, I'm halfway finished with the third, and I'm still playing the last. It shouldn't be too much longer now.

In other news, the GameCritics crew finished recording our year-end wrap-up looking back at 2011. It was a pretty chunky show, probably coming in somewhere near the three-hour mark.

Although I think it's a good episode overall, it's a shame that we ran out of time at the end. After we had voted to choose our overall game of the year, we had some pretty good discussion popping up that I would have loved to have gotten deeper into. Unfortunately, we had to cut it short, but I look forward to the reactions and comments… I think our pick will be a surprising one to a lot of people. In fact, I think it was fairly surprising to a few members of our own podcast!

While on the subject of wrap-ups, I'll be doing my own personal top ten shortly. I've played everything I felt like I needed to and the podcast is done, so all that's left is to sit down and actually do the writing. Soon, soon soon.

I've been reading a fair number of comics lately, some good, some not so good, but I wanted to give a special call-out to Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth from DC's Vertigo line. I remember flipping through the first issue when it came out, but it didn't grab me at the time. I think it was mostly the artwork that turned me off, but my local Comic Shop Guy (Hi Scott!) talked me into picking up the first collection despite my misgivings and he was right–it was a fantastic read.

The gist of the story is that a strange virus appears and causes babies to be born as half-human, half-animal. Much of "normal" humanity dies off, and the world is left in a pretty sorry post-apocalyptic state. The main character is an innocent half-deer boy who's been raised in isolation by his father. Upon the father's death, he's left to his own devices and soon becomes entangled in the mess of humanity that exists outside his secluded forest.

There is much, much more to it than that, but all that really needs to be said is that it's a gut-wrenching, emotional read that resonated with me on multiple levels. Although it's clear to see certain influences in the works, the writing is strong and speaks accurately about the human condition. If I had to compare it to anything, I think the closest parallel would be The Walking Dead in terms of bleak tone and focus on characters, not to mention the collapse of society.

In my book, that's pretty high praise.

The wife and I have still been working our way through Buffy, and just finished Season Three yesterday.

The season started off in a bizarre, everybody-hates-Buffy sort of way, but it ended well. I have to admit, I wanted to see a bit of a different ending for Faith, but I'm okay with where it ended up at the moment. If she never comes back on the show, that would be fine with me. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that we haven't seen the last of her.

Ugh. Not a fan.

We then moved on to Season Four. I was a little disappointed to see the same sort of Buffy-on-her-own thing done again, similar to the beginning of Season Three, but at least this time it didn't take several episodes before the gang got back together. Looking forward to see what trouble our heroine gets into now that she's in college.

After the first episode of BS4, we watched the first episode of Angel to find out what became of him. It was a little on the cheesy side for me, but it was nice to see Cordelia. I've heard that it spirals off into madness by the end of its run, but so far it seems like a good enough start and we're happy to see where it goes. It's a bit on the formulaic side, perhaps, but I'm reserving judgment for now.

The post New Vegas, 2011 Wrap-up, Sweet Tooth, Buffy and Angel appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH My personal balls-out resolution to the Ultra-Luxe Casino quest.

LOW Getting confused and stuck in Vault 22–twice.

WTF Even after the last patch, several big bugs and glitches remain.

The timing of Fallout: New Vegas couldn't have been worse.

Although it arrived almost exactly two years after Fallout 3, it still felt a little too soon. I had spent over a hundred hours in the wastelands of DC, and while that game became one of my all-time favorites, I didn't feel a strong urge to repeat the experience. Even worse, New Vegas was released with a wealth of glitches, bugs and technical problems–issues so common and severe that several friends had quit the game out of frustration and warned me away from it.

Jump ahead one year.

Having completed my review duties for 2011, I found myself with a span of free time and the desire to play a big Western-style RPG. I knew that New Vegas had been patched several times since release, and that all of its DLC was available. Having purchased a copy at a deep, deep, deep discount, I figured I had nothing to lose–at the very least, it would be as bad as people told me it was, and I'd just move onto the next thing in my backlog.

Although Fallout: New Vegas follows the same basic template of wandering a post-apocalyptic land set by its predecessor, a number of factors come together to create an experience that's superior in nearly every respect. I was quite surprised to find that it's one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

When the game begins, the player takes on the role of "The Courier"–a person with no backstory other than knowing they were delivering a package before getting robbed and shot in the head. It's not much to go on, and I wasn't sure what to make of it at first. However, I eventually grew to appreciate that Obsidian left it so open. Having the ability to be any kind of character that I desired was a perfect fit for the freedom to make significant, game-altering decisions as I saw fit–and choice? Fallout: New Vegas has it in spades.

At nearly every turn, the player will encounter characters that need something or offer an opportunity. These people are sometimes free agents, but are usually associated with one of the various factions populating the desert. It's up to the player whether to indulge them, and if so, to choose between good, evil, or other. For example, performing missions for the militaristic New California Republic can end in supporting them, or undercutting them via sabotage. If neither of those appeal, players can look for an opportunity to further their own agenda, everyone else be damned. This help/hinder leeway holds significance on two levels; the first is that it lets the player be as benevolent or as poisonous as they like, and secondly, it determines how the inhabitants of New Vegas will relate.

This web of relationships built by currying favor with one group or becoming the enemy of another builds a connection and buy-in that's hard to ignore. I might not have been very inclined towards supporting the NCR at the game's beginning, but after having seen towns ravaged by Caesar's Legion, the phrase "the enemy of your enemy is your friend" proved to be quite true of over the course of my adventure. On the other hand, choices must be weighed extremely carefully. Is it worthwhile to fulfill the request of a close friend even if it means that friendly soldiers nearby will be cut off from resupply? What's more important, maintaining a reliable source of plasma weapons, or trying to bolster the competing business of someone who may be of help later?

Further enhancing the game is that the quests available are incredibly varied and interesting–in fact, I am hard-pressed to think of anything in my experience that's done better than Fallout: New Vegas. From the trivial to the grand, from the mundane to the bizarre, Obsidian has something for everyone here, and almost every bit of it is worth seeing.

I will never forget helping Boone figure out what became of his wife in the town of Novac. Locating an undead cowboy dominatrix? Did it. Having a meal with the Great Khans and tricking one of the attendees into embarrassing himself to a fatal degree? A high point. I felt warm fuzzies when I brought together two lovers separated by a bombardment zone, and the Pulp Fiction-style resolution to the events uncovered in the Ultra-Luxe Casino will go down as one of the most exciting segments of gameplay I've had the pleasure of experiencing. When it comes to quests, New Vegas is second to none.

Other areas of the game are just as strong and smart. For example, the player can meet memorable companions full of personality to accompany him on his journey, but it's rarely as simple as "Hi, please come with me." Even better, once found, each companion has a request or an issue that needs solving. However, in stark contrast to other recent RPGs like Skyrim or Mass Effect 2, the player has to work hard and get to know the character before they will open up. It makes more sense, feels more rewarding, and gives the companions greater depth.

Apart from this, the dialogue in general never fails to be smart, quite witty, and a few notches above what other developers turn out. Incidentally, I was thrilled to see that Fallout: New Vegas handles homosexuality in a way that's shockingly mature and accepting. The respectful treatment of gay and lesbian characters was stunning, and if for nothing else, the writing team absolutely deserves the highest possible praise for this work.

I could go on lavishing praise for quite some time, but as with any project, there are aspects that don't quite hit the mark. Small issues like confusing maps leading to wandering in circles can irritate, and crafting ammunition feels misguided–it's a lot of extra inventory to parse through, and doesn't seem worth the effort with so much ammo available for purchase. I also felt that adding "damage tolerance" on top of damage dealt, on top of changing ammo types needlessly complicated gameplay that should be streamlined.

However, those things can largely be ignored or worked around with little effort. A larger concern is the fact that even though New Vegas has been patched, I still encountered several bugs and problems that should not be there.

For instance, my companion Veronica had a glitched personal quest that was impossible to start–very disappointing, since she was one of my favorites. One quest in Jacobstown could not be completed because the person I needed to speak to kept getting killed by ambient wildlife. One quest deep in Legion territory auto-failed a matter of seconds after I began it, for no apparent reason. Towards the end of the game, a boat I needed to take simply vanished, leaving me no way to get to my destination. I could go on.

I realize that a game as large and intricate as New Vegas must be indescribably difficult to properly bug-test, but the fact remains that the game shipped broken, and even a year after its release, it's still having some issues. Nothing was more heartbreaking to me than falling in love with this game and finding that parts of it are still busted… In light of the problems I encountered, it is to Obsidian's credit that I walked away with an almost entirely positive view on things.

Although the still-questionable technical side cast a faint shadow on the experience, I still cherished my time with New Vegas and would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in a top-flight Role-Playing Game–strong emphasis on the role playing. Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via retail store and reviewed on the Xbox 360. Approximately 44 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

The post Fallout: New Vegas Second Opinion appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Completed Fallout: New Vegas the other day, and although it got a little buggier than I would have preferred towards the end, I still pushed on and rolled credits in support of the New California Republic.

The final segments were fairly satisfying, and the ending was excellent… I really admire how the developers took the time to cap off nearly everything I did while wandering in the wasteland. Getting a big wrap-up of every loose end like that is a pretty sweet thing, indeed. Working on the review right now, look for that before too long.

Prior to beating the game, I was a little concerned about whether or not I'd be able to keep playing after credits rolled, and I got conflicting answers from everyone I spoke to. Even the message boards over at GameFAQs weren't entirely clear, so let me just settle it right now for anyone who wants to know:

You can not keep playing after the game ends.

Again, for clarity: can not.

If you intend to start up some of the DLC or if there are still some quests you'd like to get to, then make sure you have a save before the end sequence. The game gives you a big "hold on!" warning prior to passing the point of no return, so pay attention and you'll be fine.

Speaking of the New Vegas DLC, I decided to pop for Dead Money and started that up tonight. I was only able to play for a short while, but I was very intrigued by what I saw–it's a complete shift from the main game in terms of tone and mood, being very dark, ominous, and oppressive. Looking forward to putting some more time in on it tomorrow.

Sharp gamer lady Anne Lee (@ApricotSushi) has penned a new article explaining why she's not excited for Final Fantasy XIII-2… it's a well-written, personal piece, although I daresay it may have the opposite effect of what she intended. Decide for yourself.

The excellent gentlemen over at Bootsnake Games have been working on Containment: The Zombie Puzzler for a while, and the iPad/iPad2 version is now available. I've played a good chunk of that version and the upcoming PC version as well, and I can't wait to get my hands on the full-meal deal.

In the few seconds before you click over and purchase it for yourself, you can read my hands-on preview. In addition, here's a brief press release:

Action Puzzle Games are awesome. We all love them, and we've played all of them. Why should you care about Containment: The Zombie Puzzler? Well for starters, we ditched the gems. We also got rid of match-three. Containment takes a new approach to the genre, bringing a frantic real-time pace and adding the kind of personality and graphics not normally found in a puzzler.

Containment: The Zombie Puzzler tasks players with surrounding zombies with like-colored survivors. Once surrounded, the zombies are destroyed in a spray of blood and gunfire, rewarding the player with items to be used in the fight. Take too long, and the zombies attack, infecting your survivors and turning them over to the zombie hordes!

Trust me–Containment is a far cry from Bejeweled, and it's awesome. Don't miss it.

If you were anywhere near the Internet over the last few months, then it's pretty likely that you heard importers or players in other countries talking endlessly about Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) and how utterly fabulous it is. You probably also heard that Nintendo was not releasing it here in the United States.

That's changed.

Apparently, Nintendo will be releasing a very limited amount of the game here in the United States next April, but only through GameStop–or, at least, that's the most recent information. If you're interested in putting a pre-order in, get that done.

Based on the current word, there is a strong possibility that the game will pull a Panzer Dragoon Saga, meaning that the number of available copies will be quite small, they will sell out immediately, people who got one will constantly talk about how fantastic it is, and eBay copies will skyrocket in price.

Personally, I have no idea whether or not the game lives up to its reputation.

I haven't had the opportunity to lay hands on it and this is not an endorsement from me, but everyone who's played it speaks of the game in reverent terms, so it's got to be at least pretty good, I'm assuming. I mean, I've fallen out of love with the Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) in large part, but I keep hearing time and again that this is the game that revitalizes it, so I'm open to seeing what it's all about.

It remains to be seen whether the game delivers or if this is another case of 'too much hype', but if you're at all curious and have no desire to break the bank on what will inevitably be a collector's item later on, then be aware that the time to pre-order is now.

The post New Vegas and Xenoblade pre-orders appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH Reinheart Manx. Just… Reinheart Manx.

LOW: Almost everything and everyone else.

WTF Lucas Montbarron, your father has been murdered. Shouldn’t you have feelings about that?

I should like Dungeon Siege III. Hunting for monsters and better armor are two of my favorite things, and Obsidian's hack-and-slahser fits plenty of both into a story more complex than Diablo II's.. (Granted, that bar isn't set very high). However, while the Diablos and Torchlights can keep me left-clicking for hours, Dungeon Siege III didn't hook me at all. It's a pretty game with a decent enough combat system, but after finishing it I have no desire to play again.

Perhaps the story's complexity is part of the problem. The land of Ehb is rent with political and religious strife; "Saint" Jeyne Kassynder and her armies are attacking the kingdom, and the only hope of saving it are members of the 10th Legion. Unfortunately, these armies have decimated most of the Legionnaires and, to top everything off, the Legion may or may not have killed the King thirty years ago.

It's the kind of story that's supposed to encourage deep moral pondering, but what actually happens is that players are asked to kill people or spare them. Sometimes their answers to non-player characters gain "influence" with their AI partner, but I'm not sure how this influence affects the game. In fact, I don't know how any of the decision-making elements affect the game, apart from a few cut-scenes and possibly the ending, which is displayed rather flatly in still images and narration. All the branching dialogue trees do is try to make the plot seem more complicated–and better–than it really is.

Player choice that feels tacked-on and shallow is nothing new, of course. I could forgive the developers' "all roads lead to Rome" approach if the characters they forced me to talk to were actually interesting. In attempt to give the story gravitas, the voice acting is all very serious–and by "serious," I mean "monotonous." The script is equally lackluster. For instance, my character's father had been murdered before the story started. Was he questing to avenge his death? I can't tell you. The rest are little better.

The one bright spot in the cast is the magician, Reinheart Manx. As a scholar, he's excited by new types of magic and rock formations. As a funny old man, he makes offhand comments about death. (He can even do both at once: "Scholarship waits for no man's naptime!") His voice actor infuses his lines with cheer and wisdom, and I spent as much time with Reinheart as I could. Unfortunately it wasn't as much time as I would've liked, since he was the last party member I met.

Another breath of fresh air? Dungeon Siege III's map system. If I track a quest, I can turn on a guide of yellow dots to point me in the right direction. This feature isn't forced on players at all, and is easy to turn off and on. When all I want to do is kill things, it's nice not to have think about where I'm going. My sense of direction and I hope to see more maps like this.

While the map was neat, the core of the experience–the combat–had problems. Killing enemies is more awkward than I'd like. Attacks are mapped to the four face buttons and using defensive attacks requires us to hold the left trigger button before we can employ them. Using a skill enough times unlocks its "Empowered" version, which is accessed by holding the right trigger button first. If I want to use an empowered version of a defensive skill, I have to hold both triggers at the same time, while also pushing the face button I want. This inelegance (to say the least) may come from trying to shove keyboard-and-mouse controls onto two analog sticks and buttons. At any rate, it adds to the sense that Dungeon Siege III is more complicated than necessary, and I spent most of the game mashing the X button.

In short, Dungeon Siege III is a morass of flat characters, a story as dull as dishwater, and combat that manages to be both frustrating and boring. I don't hate it–the game isn't that good at inspiring strong feelings, except in the case of its final two bosses–but it's 20-odd hours I'll soon forget. Rating: 4.0 out of 10.

Disclosures: This game was obtained via publisher and played on the PS3. 20 hours were spent in single-player mode (completed 1 time). No time was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game contains: blood, mild language, mild suggestive themes and violence. Although some attacks cause bleeding and even offer bonuses when used on bleeding characters, the ally and enemy assets are so small that it isn't very graphic. Teens should be fine.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing: All dialogue has subtitles, and there are no significant auditory cues.

The post Dungeon Siege III Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.