I'm not really sure where to start with this game, nor what to say that hasn't been already said, the game is phenomenal and genuinely unique, it has no competition as no game is like it, hell it's not even a game at this point at least no more than a story being unfolded under your eyes that you can tweak and manage, and the devs really lean on that by making sure you are reminded that losing your colony doesn't signify a loss as much as a sad ending to a story
My first playthrough in this game with my S/O using the multiplayer mod was a coop experience that can't be replicated and something that I'll always remember fondly.

Even now I remember all of the colonists we had, Luna and her affinity for cybernetics and the supernatural, becoming something akin to a dark prophet with her psychic powers by the end of anomaly, Lily and her red cloak and army of mechanoids, Kat and her LMG and 20 shooting, Sossvon the impid and his insta mining and fire breathing, Gem "Gemma" Gem, an orphan that we saved that ended up being a crackshot Hussar, and most importantly Rin and her 20 crafting carrying all of our production needs, her and her amusing bad-back health issue.

Seeing all of them escape the rimworld we were stuck in through the space ship we built after defending it so zealously was such a climax to a slow buildup over the course of weeks of playtime.

There really isn't any major complaints I have about the game, as the minor things I found lacking can easily be compensated with the many mods the community made, this game is a diamond that I'm so ever happy to have finally decided to pick up
If you enjoy slow-burn games then give it a try and you'll find yourself immersed and attached to the little colonists you create and the ones that have joined you on your journey, it's an experience to not miss.

I have just finished the final boss of the game after an entire day of no avail, and after watching the gorgeous cutscene and the whiplash of nostalgia i got after seeing the black leather bandit set for Duchess which is the set I always used back when i was a teen playing DS1, I had to write a review on the game, although you'll have to excuse me as the structure of the review will probably be a mess as I'm not very good at this

As you'd expect it is an asset flip through and through, even with adding new bosses and bringing some old ones like gaping dragon (my beloved) most of the bosses youll meet and regular enemies are old acquaintances of yours.
I was a bit skeptical with the whole gotta go fast theme they have going on but honestly it flows really smoothly once you have a checklist of things to do and know where to find said things (for example mines always give purple smithing stone, churches of marika give you an extra flask, etc etc)
But honestly the thing that genuinely impressed me is that even for an asset flip as this they bothered to make an actual story and such interesting characters with backstories just as good, I was really caught off guard when I was playing Duchess' remembrances and how tied they were to Wylder, and the ending of it was really sweet and beautiful, such tact and class with how they write their characters is one of the things I've really admired.
The game will get repetitive pretty quick, this isn't a point of discussion, sure the core gameplay is very fun but it is a roguelike, and a barely one at that, there is not much creativity for builds except a few passives that are fun, even though they tried to make a lot of build customization with the relic system that is actually pretty fun and not a chore to grind like for example decorations in monster hunter, they're not extremely strong buuuut they do make a difference, kind of, especially relics that allow you to have bleed or such ailment on your starting weapon so you can upgrade said weapon to purple rarity if you didn't find any decent weapons in your run, or like for example the one that gives Wylder another skill use.
The game is still extremely fun, I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys elden ring or souls like, even if they don't like rogue-likes -myself included-.

As for the egregious things that I can't really defend:
-The lack of a duo mode, as many people have pointed it out, the strongest fromsoft boss now is having friends apparently, and not just one, you need 2 as the game difficulty doesn't apparently scale down in solo mode, so unless you have 2 friends in VC to coordinate, get ready to get very frustrated with randoms
-Communication tools, although there are 2 types of pings, map pings and "On the ground" pings it still isn't enough, especially when you expect people to have to play with an extreme sense of urgency, to plan things with randoms with inexistant voice chat and text chat is a Sisyphean task, Although if I had to play devil's advocate you could say voice chat or text chat would increase toxicity through backseat gaming and judging builds, but it also doesn't allow people like me who want to teach and help others, like for example theres so many people who aren't aware that weapons have passives that are on even if you only have it in your inventory and not equipped, so most my runs with randoms I see that most people have like 4 empty weapon slots and such, blaming them however is not something I will do since the game just came out and weapon load was such a crucial thing in previous games so maybe they thing it is here as well, which it isn't, just like fall damage
Less egregious:
-More passives that aren't just numbers on my characters (MAX HP MAX STAMINA etc etc)
-More of a subjective critique but I really do despise these new boss designs that make the boss huge and heavy feeling with their attacks that destroy half your HP bar, but even with that sense of gigantisism, they also dash around the arena from one player to another like a chimpanzee on Cocaine, and have such tight windows of punishment after a series of 6 or so attacks that you need to dodge perfectly.

My love for fromsoftware birthed with dark souls 1 and died with dark souls 1, the second and the third installment I couldn't even enjoy because of how overshadowed to my eyes they were by their older brother as it was and still is one of the best pieces of artistry I've ever had the joy to experience.
Elden ring however I did enjoy, a lot, not just for the gameplay but for the lore, characters, and the story, everything about it is stellar even when I genuinely thought people overpraised it, but it deserved all of it.
So I'm very happy that this asset flip of Elden ring was such a hit for me, I've had a blast with it from day one and I played nothing for the past days except it, even if sometimes I would get really frustrated with some bosses (the moth and Adel) while Augur was really boring until he dropped a very slow falling Nuke on my friend that made the rest of the fight hilarious, none of those things bothered me or would outweigh the fun I have, hell even my friend who doesn't usually have strong opinions about games loved this one and we played until 5 AM, the flow of the matches is impeccable for me and to my taste it is great, maybe because I haven't played much "Fortnite-esque" games but for me the fun I had when the game released and the fun I have now after like 30 hours is still the same. And don't get me started on how happy I got when I got surprised by gaping demon as a night 2 boss, I love that they've put so much things from the dark souls series, especially the first DS, it's such a treat to see them in modern visuals.

All in all I would recommend this game for anyone that is interested in a coop soulslike experience to play with friends, and I would still recommend it for you even if you don't have any to play with as not all randoms are a chore to play with, I said at first that I've just beaten the final boss, better believe it was with 2 randoms.

I'm very happy I've went back to enjoying fromsoft's games with elden ring and now this, Dark souls 1 will always have a special place in my heart for how it influenced me growing up, but maybe I'll make some space for their other titles. (if they could release that one unmentionable on PC)

I'm not usually the type of person that writes reviews for games, i usually don't come back to the store page for games that i buy ever, but this literal piece of art made me feel like it was my obligation to share my piece of mind about it, i'm not going to talk objectively, but more give you a glimpse of my own adventure in this game so spoilers i guess

Dark souls, i remember when a friend recommended it to me after I finished skyrim, i gave it a spin and gave up after i thought that the next place to go after fire link shrine was the catacombs, and then a couple years after i decided to buy it on steam and give it one more shot, what i didn't realize however, was that i would be set on an unforgettable adventure alongside NPCs that I loved as if they were real people, on a quest for a dying world with nothing to start but a broken sword, and that this game would genuinely change my whole mindset on life itself.

I remember the rewarding feeling i would get after dodging perfectly, after parrying an enemy for the first time, or after defeating a boss that I was stuck in, Capra demon was the first vibe check i got from dark souls and how happy I was to getting past that obstacle couldn't be put into words, seeing yourself improve by dodging at the right moment, by attacking and evading your enemies blow makes you feel stronger than your own stats, dark souls is truly an rpg that favours skill more than the numbers in your character's profile, which to me was it's selling point at the beginning, the combat was so flawless and so nicely done that you couldn't but feel proud of yourself for advancing into a new and unexplored area, how sweet was that feeling when you unlocked a shortcut to a bonfire, and how impressive was it that you realized how connected the areas are to each other, and how the level design was actually on a divine level

But none of those was what made me fall head over heels for this game, far from it the thing that made me hold this game so close to my heart was the people that lived in the game, and the rollercoaster of emotions that i felt throughout the journey because of them

I remember meeting solaire for the first time and how i fell in love with his beaming charisma and overjoyfulness, i always felt as if this world wasn't a place for him, i remember meeting with seigmeyer for the first time and aww'ing at how much of a big goofball he was, the game made me care more about these two than the actual storyline, it made me feel so much more happiness everytime i met one of them in my journey to "save" the world that i couldn't help but just take a minute or two just to listen to whatever memorable dialogue they had to say

But dark souls' world nails really hard that you're in a merciless world and that good things don't last forever, including my two favourite things in that game.

No game made me feel this attached to side characters that spoke so little, to a world with nothing that makes you smile but only the few good hearted people that eventually fell to its unfair grasp

No game made me cry so genuinely when i saw those people fall down right before me, nor made me desperetly look for a way to save NPCs from their eventual demise, but there i was, past midnight in the middle of the credit screen not accepting that goodest boy's faith as i could hear his words in my head at that time as he talked about jolly cooperation, it wasn't fair for him

And when i discovered that his faith could be changed, I went to new game +, i met him again for yet another playthrough as each words he said made me more determined on giving him back the life that the world stole from him, and when he said as how he usually get the expression i had on my face, i couldn't help but laugh as only now did i realize what he truly meant by those words, I didn't sleep on that night as that one little character had so much importance in my heart that I couldn't stop playing until i saw that he lived on, it wouldn't be right say farewell to the game like this, and so i fought on for one more time through anything that the game decided to throw at me, i summoned solaire and we fought shoulder to shoulder against the gargoyles and the two defenders of anor londo, and i felt even more determined to help him after each battle together

And when i arrived at the kiln of the first flame as the beginning of the end started, i caught in the corner of my eye a summoning sign,and lo and behold it was solaire, no second thoughts struck me as i summoned him for one more fight together as comrades, and together as comrades we entered the arena to put an end at this madness

The battle ended as yours truly and his companion came victorious, and as i slowly saw him vanish away i was smiling, i was smiling and ready to finally say farewell to this game, and when i looked through the window and saw that the sun was shinning as brightly my comrade in arms, that's when i realized that i'll never play anything like this masterpiece

I'll never forget dark souls one, not even its sequels made me feel this much attachment to this universe, nothing can compare to this, nothing.

It's a bit ironic that the game is extremely nihillistic, as the only nihillism i felt that day was that i'll never experience this journey ever again, but i'm more than glad i took part in it

Thanks for reading, stay hydrated and have a nice day.