Recent reviews by 765

Just as great as Dark and Darker, but I don't like the recent changes.

Since they added the druid class, combat has become even more annoying than against movement speed builds in Dark and Darker.


+ Epic castle map no other game can compete with.

+ Melee is a nice back and forth with blocks, parries, heavies, lights and melee abilities.

+ Item set bonuses.

+ Fun NPC enemies.

+ Interesting abilities and weapon secondaries.


- Matchmaking is a mess.

- Druid is cancer.

- Immersion-breaking paid cosmetics.

+ Fun combat.
+ Looks good.

- Ultra repetitive missions, designed to waste your time and make you buy what you are grinding for.
- The same shallow, infantile story and character writing as in every other Korean game.
- Overpriced cash shop.
- No real endgame.

Got it for less than $4, what a killer value!



It is more of the same, which automatically makes it awesome.
But the game leaves SO MUCH POTENTIAL on the table that this DLC doesn't fix either, makes me sad.

"Free2play" game which costs $99 if you want access to all "endgame classes".

Very funny NCsoft...

Love both missions.

In fact, the second mission might be my new absolute favorite. Something about the environment makes me feel the least redundant and tedious out of all the maps.

Still can't recommend this game.



* It's what happens when you use your combat designed for a 3v3 arena MOBA and just throw it into a PVE/PVEVP game where you get swarmed by enemies.
You can get chained from one CC into the next, often everything is covered in AoE damage/CC and every single enemy can just spam attacks and moves while yours are all on a multi-second cooldown except for the borderline useless auto attacks which require you to face-tank attacks if using melee.
And did I mention the damage you take also lowers your max HP? Yeah...


* It's also what happens when you try to jam a crafting-survival system into an otherwise beautiful castle-building fantasy.
It devolves into mind-numbing tedium and despite the incredible experience of bat form it makes you feel more like a peasant craftsman who took on one too many contracts rather than a powerful, commanding vampire.


* Then there is the boss designs.
If the idea was to make bosses feel as dumb and unfun as possible, no matter whether you win or lose, they succeeded.
Against many of the bosses, any move you make is a gamble.
Dodge one of their heavy attacks? Might just dash into one of their AoEs they keep spamming the area with at the same time.
Attack them? They might just use one of their instant shields that blocks all damage and instead damages you, potentially stunning you too.
The bosses feel designed either for a completely different game where the player gets more than 1 move every few seconds, or not designed at all and simply a result of some bright guy saying "let's make them do everything all the time!"
It might just feel lame with a ranged build but it feels downright impossible with a melee build even with something crazy like 100% brute blood laced with another 100% because they will out-tank you, out-DPS you, out-CC you and with everything covered in AoE damage/CC, dodging is often not about avoiding damage but spending a valuable ability on getting hit anyway, especially with the unresponsive abilities and their terrible feedback.
And maybe the worst design mistake: Bosses get stronger the lower their HP because their abilities ramp up, while the player gets weaker the lower their HP because their max HP drops too so they can't even heal back up.
And then once you finally killed all bosses it was all for nothing because there no longer is any reason to play.



* And last but not least there is no endgame.
The game was designed to be re-played in PVP, and as a result the combat feels bad in PVE and the entire grind of collecting and producing materials is meant to be repeated over and over and over again.

Amazing game I would REALLY like to play but can't..


..because the controls, camera and lock-on system are so INCREDIBLY bad.
I can't believe how a game with such terrible controls and combat mechanics can get this much praise. 9/10 deaths will be your controls, camera or lock-on ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you up.

I am not going to buy another FromSoftware game before making sure it has usable controls and camera.

First up, the visual and conceptual art design and the music of the different races are absolute masterpieces!
I recommend finding them on YouTube, they will definitely make you want to play this game.

However, actual gameplay feels dull, generic and extremely repetitive with none of the character or atmosphere from the race videos. Apart from a different gameplay mechanic or 2 you won't even notice which race you are playing.

I was really disappointed, at least for the price they are asking for the game + DLCs.

One of the worst games I have ever played.
Might as well be a mobile game.


+ Silly but fun combat (at least the PVP and the tough dungeons)
+ Graphics (at least from a distance, better not zoom in)

- Main Story
Demons attacked earth, humans need the ark, stone tablet will tell them where it is.
That's it, that's the whole story and it's all you will ever hear. "We need to find the stone tablet so we can find the ark and destroy the demons! Oh hello, are you also looking for the stone tablet to find the ark and destroy the demons? That's great, now let's all go find the stone table to find the ark to destroy the demons!"

- Side Quests
"We need supplies, bring us supplies please, thanks for the supplies!"
"We need to kill these people, kill these people please, thanks for killing these people!"

- Immersion
NPCs spam their 1 voice line over, and over, and over, and over, and over and over.... every single time you pass by them.
To make things worse, every other guard spams the same moan nonstop, and I mean nonstop, and these guards are everywhere. In camps and cities you basically hear nothing but nonstop moaning.



TL;DR
The whole thing feels like a pretty, flashy but cheap mobile port with less-than-minimum effort put into anything except for the elaborate currency-resource system to drive you crazy trying to max out a character until you cave and spend real money.

Preliminary review because I need more time with the game to do it justice.



This game is NOT perfect and not everyone will enjoy it.
However, the game has been an incredible experience for me because of the intense, masterfully written and acted story and the huge amount of freedom, possibilities and content.

And - as sad as it may be that this has to be included in reviews nowadays - all packaged into a single price without sneaky tricks to squeeze more money out of me while delivering less than I expected.