Recent reviews by A Swarm of Savage Lefroms

RuneScape: Dragonwilds is, at it's core, everything you liked about Valheim, Enshrouded, and V-Rising smashed together. I'm one of those few heathens that never played RuneScape so I can only give a view of someone who enjoys survival games. The gameplay loop is pretty good, and pretty standard. You go out into the world, you harvest your stuff, you build your gear, you weasel your way into the next area and get the next stage of gear...wash rinse repeat.

While at it's core it's much like any other survival games it's still quite good. Traveling out into the wilds with my friends, each with their own set of gear and style, fighting goblins and crap. It's a feel I haven't experienced in quite some time. And even just chopping trees down for levels is quite enjoyable.

But the game DOES have some problems. For starters...well it's early access and there are some early access elements you will feel. First and foremost. The audio bugs, dear god. I always keep my game volume lowered in my computers volume mixer. And I recommend you do the same because my good friend does NOT do that. And every dragon, every spell casted on a tree, every log we broke is NOT balanced with the Master Volume. And you're in for a nasty suprise when you reach a certain scripted event and have your ear drums blown out.

Secondly, the missing features. At first not having TWO of the nine skills felt...negligible. But when you realize that is nearly 65% of the combat it starts to suck. In the games current state there is ONLY a 'Fighting' skill tree when it comes to combat. You can still craft your staves and bows and use them normally but without a bona fide skill, it feels like pissing in the wind. The current map size and quest progression is FINE for now, but you may only find yourself with two or three days worth of enjoyment before your stuck standing in a circle with nothing to do.

And finally, the enemies. Scaling is a bit...strange. You go from fighting rats to goblins and the step between the two is MASSIVE. Goblins are fairly strong and even with a Power Level surpassing goblins you may still find yourself in a pickle, and getting your parrying down is definitely a curve in of itself. But once you get past goblins the game becomes incredibly difficult with the enemies having a massive spike in difficulty. Packs of wolves you easily get overwhelmed with and do massive damage, Garou's that decimate your health bar and can snipe you from quite a distance away. Progressing past bone weapons and fairly crappy armor is a SLOG, and you can't just...grind out of it runescape style and become a god with a stick. Like all survival games, it's still a fine mesh sieve you need to crawl your way through to progress.

But the games still fun, especially with friends, it's simply...survival game #74, but it's an actually good one. It's visually appeasing and the unique elements it does add work very well.

TL;DR: Early Access, Noticeably Missing Features, Massive Difficulty Curves. Great exploration, Good Visuals, Fun with friends!

The parts that RuneScape, Dragonwilds suffers in, are easily fixable. And changes I imagine will come with time. If you absolutely NEED a fresh and fun survival game, it's pretty good. If not, you may just want to hold onto your money until the game is just a tinge more done.

Drova is a beautiful open world pixel adventure game. The combat is flowy and nuanced, and I really enjoy a game where you feel like you hit a power-spike just by learning the combat yourself. It makes for a fun experience when exploring or starting anew.

Drova is almost like a soulslike...almost. And almost like an open world...almost. While with enough knowledge of mechanics and enemy attack patterns, you can kill a high level baddie with the stick you just got. But you'll want to hang around at an area before continuing. You get a quest, you roam the area to find a guy who 'went out to do something' you help that guy finish his thing, you go back, you get your reward, you go to a new place and do that thing again.

It gets very samey, and as much as I hate to say it the enemies don't really feel more difficult or nuanced just...cheaper. Now there's difficult terrain that'll make it harder to dodge, guys who shoot piddly little darts that widdle you out. Guys who pop out of the ground, stun you, hit you for a ♥♥♥♥-ton and THEN fight you. At first I did enjoy how Drova put me on the edge, really I did...but once that magic is gone I started to feel like I was being punished for wanting to explore.

Another huge gripe is how some of the story beats go, I like immersion A LOT but maybe not so immersive that if I don't shut up and do what some unlikable character is doing to me I get the salty tears beat out of me like the small frail little baby I am. It's stupid gripe, I know, but it just doesn't feel amazing when it happens.

Drova feels like a massive collections of the parts of good games that I didn't like. You have annoying bugs (literal) from Elden Ring, you get the 'oops wrong dialogue choice, instant death' from Baldur's Gate 3, you get the illusion of free roam you get from so many other open world games. And when it's all stacked up I realized I wasn't having fun, I was hoping I'd explore the fun along the way.

Drova IS NOT a bad game, make no mistake. And I feel dirty even putting 'not recommended' here. But if you checked the negative reviews for a reason to NOT get it...here it is. It's not for everyone, and it's not for me. If you like hardcore games, if you want an unforgiving game (that isn't as unforgiving as Fear and Hunger but still puts you on edge) this is it.

TL;DR - It's not for everyone, you may enjoy it you may put it on the shelf like I did.
If you want a fun immersive adventure, you may want to look elsewhere. If you want a hardcore gritty survival experience that challenges you and makes you feel victorious when you win even the most trivial of fights. You may enjoy this.

I played Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 when I was like six. I never really cared for them when I was younger. I've tried Pillars of Eternity, Path Finder, and many other isometric games like Baldur's Gate and it never really entertained me. When I heard Baldur's Gate 3 was coming out I was one of those people that thought it was going to blow. I thought maybe it was too ambitious, it was riddled with bugs, and in today's world game studios wouldn't understand what makes DnD so special. A game where character creation and role-play is so important, where choices mattered, where you made your own path if you could make a convincing enough argument with the DM

Baldur's Gate 3 could not be any better, it really couldn't. It is perfect in every way. So much thought and love was put into every action, every map, every story beat. You can feel the passion that was put into designing this game was solely for the love of making something for people to enjoy, not a desire for you to empty your wallet.

I cannot express in words just how perfect this game is, if you're like me and don't (or think you don't) enjoy isometric games, grab a friend and just try it out. Try different builds, try different choices than before, try to not save-scum while you're at it.

TL;DR It's good, it's just good in every way. If you're not a fan of games like Pathfinder, Pillars of Eternity, or Divinity you may not enjoy it but try it with a friend. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Oh jeez, this game. What a complicated relationship I have with this game. Some time ago, I played this game nonstop. Finished the original Main Story of A Realm Reborn straight. Didn't deviate from the main story at all. After I was done, I was like "Wow, so why is everyone saying the story was good? That was mid at best." and then I stopped playing.

Fast Forward a few years later, I decided to make a new character and start fresh. I did all of A Realm Reborn AGAIN. And it wasn't a cakewalk the second time around either. But I was determined to try again as all my friends said "Just get through ARR, it's a bit of a slog but it'll be worth it. Trust me." And as I subjected myself to what felt like literary torture, I finished it. Then, there was the patch content that comes with every expansion. And that was ALSO a slog. To the point where I was telling all my friends "Look, I know a good game. A game that says 'Wait it gets good' isn't good. Just flat out." But I did it anyway.

Now, almost a year later, after finishing Dawntrail and having done ARR a Third Time on a fourth character. I am now telling you, prospected buyer, to just get through ARR, it's a bit of a slog...but it'll be worth it. FFXIV has it's low points, don't get me wrong. But it is /THE/ MMO right now for a reason. There's so much content to lose yourself in, and so much to do, the Story of Final Fantasy 14 is nothing short of absolutely amazing. And the community of FFXIV is as welcoming as can be. A Realm Reborn and it's Post Patch Content is almost like a trial, and the reward for beating it is a massive world for you to decide how you enjoy.

My advice? If you're not sure, if you think it's a slog...if you were like me and think "If it takes this long to get good, it isn't good." Just...try. Immerse yourself in the world, don't rush it, and maybe read the dialogue and understand the stakes. Make it your own, make it your adventure, and make it fun for yourself. And whatever you do, don't stop. FFXIV is free to Stormblood, and if you're not interested in the story after the last quest of A Realm Reborn's Patch Content. THEN you can throw in a towel and say it's garbage without my judgment.

FFXIV is a STORY game with an incredible MMO mixed in, not the other way around. Now for an actual review, the gameplay loop is that of most MMO's, it's got your abilities your OGCD's, your GCD's. Yadda yadda yadda. It's not going to be extremely fast-paced content and more in-line with other MMO's. Every Class has its gimmick and you get to try every single one, if you want. Dungeons, Raids, and most PvE content are fairly simple...up until you get to Shadowbringers and beyond where they now expect you to understand the mechanics. Then the game gets fairly more difficult. Overall, FFXIV manages to do what every other MMO in a fairly interesting and engaging way. But if you've played other MMO's and don't find yourself into how they do combat...then this one isn't going to impress you all that much either, I imagine.

But there is honestly just so much to do in this game. You get the joy of making your outfits and designs through glamouring. You've got your hard and elite content of Savage Raiding and the cool loot you can get from them. You've got the classic MMO feel of Eureka and the importance of working together. You've got the intense PvP modes where teamwork and moving together is truly the only way to reliably win. You've got crafting, gathering, housing, the rogue-like modes and even the joy of trying on the limited jobs. There is just SO MUCH to do in this game that it's really up to you what you do next.

In my opinion, the only bad part of FFXIV is just...getting through the first slow bits of the game as it tries to ease you in. And I'm so sure of this promise that I will 100% HAPPILY Taxi and help new players get through that first hump of ARR and what have you. If you're reading this and unsure about going through the story for the first time or even your second or third time, you have my express permission to add me as a friend and I will help you through the MSQ.

TL;DR: Good Game, Tons of Content and Things to Do, The First quest line and story may be a bit of a slog but getting through it is worth it.

Hey, I'm not with these sickos. I just use it for character creation and art renders. I swear. Why are you looking at me like that?

It's just abominable now, truly abominable. There's so much about this game that is just unforgivably bad that there's very little reason to recommend this game to anyone.

Let's get what's good about the game out of the way first. The gameplay is rather fun, the character have interesting abilities and ringing out and playing it feels fun and satisfying. It's a smash clone so it has the same dopamine a smash game has but with interesting spins on characters. The overall style of it and how they executed said characters is unique and the characters they add are surprising and welcomed even if it's a mish-mash of genres. The dodge mechanic takes advantage of player awareness and allows for a simple and easy way to adapt to a fight even if you're getting slammed.

Now, for the bad. First things first, there are some characters that feel awkwardly balanced and weird to play with or against. Sure, there's a strat. Sure, there's a counter to it. And sure, you can come up with some excuse as to why it's okay. But generally, some characters are not fun to play and some are even less fun to play against. But that's a small gripe overall. But bottom line is, when you launch a match you roll a die that determines if you'll have fun or not.

Next we have the PvE Mode. It's not anything to write home about, really. It's not satisfying, it's not engaging, and it most certainly isn't unique. There's some long dialogue boxes nobody cares about, there's a short soulless fight and you move to the next one. Every once in awhile there'll be an incredibly uninteresting mini-game challenge that either 'whack the balloon', 'shoot the balloon', 'Go through this optical course and hit balloons', or 'Defend a balloon from an onslaught of evil balloons'. At no point in time did I find myself standing and enjoying myself just a "get this over with so I can get a piddly-wink of progress on my mission roster". So PvE isn't any fun, but you have to do it for the rewards, right? Are the rewards any good? Well, yes. If you're enjoying the game and want other characters, skins, or currency to buy gems, skins, and characters? Yeah, you may as well. But I'm going to have to stop you right there before you get excited. The PvE Mode will require you to have certain 'character tags' to do the quest. So you want to play Harley? Sorry, but you need to be a Non-human to get all the points for this mission! Which is incredibly lame, there's no point to adding this stupid 'tag' mechanic for missions when role requirement missions were fine in beta.

Oh but honey, that isn't the worst part of this 'tag' mechanic. Some missions require you to have a tag you only get from skins you pay money for. That's right! And I don't mean just 'you'll lose some points'. You actually CAN NOT progress through the PvE mode UNLESS you have a Premium Skin that costs you MONEY. A skin you may not even want. If that isn't the greediest poorly thought decision they could've made, I don't know what is.

And the train doesn't stop there folks, there's another glaring problem with the game! It barely works! That same die you rolled earlier to decide if you have fun? Well, you get to roll it again and decide if you, or a random member, don't just crash instantaneously and close the lobby. The functionality and service of this game alone is worth an uninstall, but that paired with unfun gameplay, boring repetitive mission grind, and horrible greedy choices? Not even worth consideration.

It's a Free Game, however. Should you try it? It's a small game disc space wise so sure, you'll get some fun from just trying it out. You probably won't be able to play the characters you want for a grind but you may get some enjoyment.

TL;DR: Hardlocks PvE through Skins you may not even like, Boring and Repetitive PvE Gameplay, Odd PvP Balancing, Horrible Connection Issues.

We won, boys.

You get more than you'd expect from an Early Access game but it still has some of the Early Access jank.

For starters, the visuals are AMAZING. The void looks amazing, and each section sounds amazing, and makes the whole game feel great. Building up your train and decorating it is like crack. The inclusion of automation does take away from the grind, which is nice. Only so much joy one can have floating around space tethered to a train before they get bored, and collecting Refleemo's (your crew) does provide some nice benefits that makes managing them interesting.

Now for the bad, the gunplay is nothing to write home about. You point, you shoot. The baddies point, and will 9/10 times hit. Without armor, health packs, and usually some extra ammo packs. You will die, over and over. Which currently comes with 0 consequences but still doesn't feel great. The game appears to be built around 50% research, crafting, and building and 50% shooting, pillaging, and looting. And that 50% is really, REALLY not great. The gunplay is the part of the game that definitely feels Early Access.

Now, the gun-crafting! Now that is somewhat interesting, you can either find a gun off a badie or build a gun with parts. The guns are entirely customizable feeling somewhat like Fallout 4 gun crafting mixed with a little of Borderlands(???). Each piece makes your weapon different, the frame changes the overall weapon stats, magazine effects your fire rate and clip size, barrel changes the ammo you use (don't ask). It has some charm to it when you make a weapon you like. And some frames can be equipped with a special core part that lets you have like an under-barrel flamethrower or zappy orb flinger? It's pretty cool.
--But it would've been AWESOME if each weapon module TOLD you what it did instead of having to take it out, and see what part of the description changed. Slap it on another gun, see what changed...yadda yadda yadda. At least highlighting the affected text would've helped.

The overall combat between Void Sharks, Wolfenstein-esque enforcers, and the one time you get attacked by angler fishes is repetitive and lackluster. And the grabbing resources to build stuff doesn't get much more interesting, it's just the raft gimmick of grabbing things. There are some cool random events while you're on the rails between an area in the void you can go to, occasional outposts and The Arena.

So, The Arena...also not great. It's fun in concept but without engaging gun-play it's just run around...shoot...don't die...run around...shoot. Oop, you died to the one bullet sponge guy that spawns in. You get nothing.

And the last gripe is the Research and Story, it's an Early Access game so it's not surprising that it sort of stops abruptly, but I mean ABRUPTLY like in the MIDDLE OF A GROOVE kind of abruptly. You'd still have to play for a good long time to reach that point but I'd love some sort of reward for reaching that point in the game or at least a cool fight instead of a sort of a deflated cliffhanger.

Now, all of that aside. This game is still a lot of fun, and I happily spent my time building my train up, it's worth a try and much better with friends. You may encounter some bugs, and you may find yourself frustrated with a fight. But Void Train encapsulates the mysterious wonder of the incomprehensible, as you wander a strange world between worlds. If the $30 is going anywhere for me, it's the hours spent staring at each world's zany landscape and trying to piece together an untold puzzle.

TLDR: Unremarkable Gunplay, Repetitive Gameplay, Incomplete Story and Research. Breathtaking Visuals and Design, Building and Expanding your train feels great, Already in an amazing direction for an Early Access Game.

Should you buy it? Up to preference really, I wouldn't recommend this game to everyone in it's current state. But when it's fully released I imagine it will be up there as one of my favorite games of all time.

Ohohohoho. This game. Mwuah. Chef's kiss.

It is, in my opinion, one of the best visual novels out there. It's got a nice medium between laid back relaxed story telling and actual game play. Some would argue that the game play isn't engaging but this is REALLY not that sort of game. If you want a game where you smash brains in, shoot 5 year-olds on their Christmas Gift Xbox, and beat the Evil King on Drexia this is NOT your game.

VA-11 Hall-A is a simple game where you sit back and read and try your best not to screw up a fairly simple puzzle...at it's base. But it's got an incredibly engaging story and at some point you'll have to rely on how much you were invested in it's characters to make the right decisions. The wrong decisions only change your ending and don't lock you out though.

With a story you can experience over and over, characters that are all incredibly deep with stories you can only fit together from what you hear, and humorous dialogue in a rather dark setting.

TL;DR - Great game, lovely story, and relaxing atmosphere. Not a lot of action (obviously) and best played without distractions.

When Darktide came out from Open Beta, me and everyone I knew barely touched it. There was little fun to have anymore, as the 'official release' barely added anything. I decided to pick it back up with my friends after the class overhaul and wowie.

The game is great now, they finally opened up more of the shops around the hub area including a cosmetic store for in-game currency. Nice. Nothing game-breaking but nice to see work was done. However, the class overhaul is AMAZING. It makes playing the game feel good again.

With the inclusion of the skill tree every class has their own three little subclasses that you can mix and match as you seem fit but for the most part you won't be deviating from your path TOO much, and with the nodes in the tree you also passively increase your damage and survivability so you may find harder levels easier for you with a filled out tree.

The overhaul added different options for your blitz (grenades and psyker powers), ultimate, and passive coherency bonus. And every option has its place in a mission that really supports the team, how they did it was masterful to the point where there's a whole new level of fun in figuring out how to make builds for the classes that work the best for you.

I was really disappointed with the "official" release. But coming back to it, Darktide is everything I wanted it to be now.