After killing gods and things more powerful than gods, I can finally live out my Destiny 2 power fantasy of crawling like a rat through sewers!

Basically a mobile game masquerading as a PC game. It reminds me a lot of Diablo Immortal where, at first glance, it seems like a fun free-to-play game but you quickly realize there is no depth. The missions are incredibly repetitive, the gun archetypes are straight out of Destiny 2 (Hand cannons, pulse rifles, auto rifles, trace rifles, SMGs, etc.), and the gunplay/gameplay isn't very good. It reminds me gameplay-wise HEAVILY of Anthem.

I could see them going somewhere interesting with this if they keep doing updates with new content. But right now this is such a "generic story" game (I couldn't even bring myself to watch cutscenes) with such repetitive, boring content, I can't recommend it.

All that having been said, it's free to play so you have nothing to lose downloading it to see if it's right for you.

I'm confused by reviewers saying that Wolcen isn't a Diablo 3 clone. Wolcen is absolutely a Diablo 3 clone. Just for example, there is a boss that is literally The Butcher, complete with same exact mechanics (shoots out a flail that drags you in) etc. But it's not a bad thing for those of us that love D3 and are having a hard time waiting for D4.

After reading reviews, I was worried about bugs. I completed the game and during that time I had 2 hard crashes and the rest of the bugs I experienced were annoyances (like I got spawned in below the floor and had to restart once, etc.). The graphics are incredibly poorly optimized and for some reason this made my GPU fan spin up more than any other game to date, including far more visually taxing games. So, this isn't an engineering marvel by any means. Any game that crashes or has glitches detracts from the overall experience (like after I crashed opening my character sheet once I would cringe a bit every time I opened it thereafter) but Wolcen is at least playable, not a broken mess. Since I'm playing this far after launch I can only assume how bad it was at launch.

The story is actually not terrible. I wasn't expecting much, and it's not a masterpiece, but it's workable. The ending, however? Wow - it is bad. Without spoiling it, the ending is literally "to be continued". Luckily, we play hack and slash RPGs for the loot, not the story. But be warned that the ending is anticlimactic to say the least.

The characters are a bit one dimensional and hard to believe at times. And you will see every plot twist from a mile away. But, I found myself caring about their outcome just a bit before all was said and done.

The gameplay is, again, borrowing 100% from Diablo 3's playbook. For example, Rogues have a turret (sound familiar?) and a skill where they shoot an arrow in to the air and it rains arrows down for a few seconds and does AOE damage (also sound familiar?). I wish they had tried to do their own thing instead of mercilessly copying Diablo, but the mechanics are still pretty satisfying. Dodging and leaving a bomb behind to blow up your enemies still felt satisfying as I got to the end-game content.

Some of the skills are pretty unbalanced. Like - I didn't discover Slayer's Fury until later in the game and was like "oh this is by far and away the best rogue skill. Why wasn't I using this before?". It will just melt through bosses whereas before I felt like I was dodging around, tickling bosses.

Also - be sure to invest in ferocity! This isn't like Diablo where you only care about your primary stat for whatever class you're playing. It's better to invest in multiple stats here.

This is one area where the game really shines. There are no classes, just items associated with a class. So I, as a rogue, can wear Sorcerer armor if I see fit. And you can re-roll your skill tree and stats at any time, so you can more or less decide to switch between classes at any point in time. You can also combine skill trees to make, for example, a spell-slinging rogue with a pistol.

Skills take XP to level up, but if you switch to a new skill in the late-game, it levels up very quickly so it's not much of a problem.

This is one of the weakest areas of the game. The boss battles are all just bullet sponges who say "this is futile" over and over again while you are mopping the floor with them (spoiler alert: it's not futile, boss, stop saying that!). Mowing down ads feels far more satisfying than any of the bosses. Also, balance seems to be an issue here as some of the earlier bosses were far more difficult than the final boss for example. Though that might be explained by the fact that I had an OK build by the time I got to the final battle.

I'm glad I bought Wolcen. It's not a masterpiece, but it IS a fun game and I can't wait to see this studio's next game. Wolcen with a bit of it's own vibe (AKA not copying Diablo) and a better story and more polish would potentially be an excellent game.

I played DAO for the first time in 2020. It's still a great game and for sure one of those during the height of Bioware's "glory days" (I mean, besides Anthem which was recent and amazing; amiright??). The storytelling is impeccable and the characters/plot are actually compelling.

There are, however, a frustrating amount of stability issues. This game crashes a LOT. And I found several times where my quicksave wouldn't load after launch the game (it just crashes as soon as you try to load it). The workaround for me was: I load a previous save (instead of clicking "Resume game") and then was able to load most recent quicksave. It's pretty maddening. In fact, my game crashed during the final cinematic. A fitting end to a buggy gaming experience.

For all its' flaws, it's still a great game. If you haven't played it yet, it's worth your time for sure.

I started the reboot series by playing Rise of The Tomb Raider. I then beat Shadow. I enjoyed the other games so much I decided to loop back and play the first in the series. It's a tad dated (most notably the menu/leveling systems, etc.) but it's still a really good game and an absolute must if you're a fan of the series. The graphics still look really pretty (one of those games that was ahead of its' time like The Witcher 2). I think the tone is a bit more "horror survival" than the other two games which I appreciated.

It was slightly cliche but I really enjoyed watching Lara transform from being kind of a wimp (in the intro she whines into her radio "can you come get me?") to a battle-hardened bonafide badass by the end. As the game progresses, her character model picks up more and more scars. She goes from being sick at her first kill (which she barely manages to pull off) to being a cold-blooded assassin, wherein you can choose perks that reward you with extra skill for dispatching opponents with flair (stabbing them at close range with an arrow while they are stunned, etc.).

The enemies aren't that varied and I wish there were actual boss fights but the combat (which borrows heavily from uncharted) is still satisfying. Collecting headshot after headshot with your bow will basically never get old. The plot isn't amazing but it's entertaining and above average for a video game.

In summary: play this game. Especially at the current price it's a no-brainer.