>>790791 This game is fucking brutal. I only won, because I got stupid lucky and found class 10 armor and a bunch of Enchant Weapon scrolls.

>>1028051 Why is it that despite being 13% of the population, udams make up 100% of the cannibalism?

>>1028115 I never looked at it that way, but yeah, i enjoyed hunting udams because of how primitive they were. I wish there were more rival tribes on the map rather than animals. If you are not escorted by one of your pets, anything roaming the woods will bother you. This gets boring soon. I also would have liked the endgame to be something like San andreas, were all tribes are scattered and desperate to hold onto territories that you have to go and take. Also there is no romance like in previous games. You clearly should fuck Sayla but the games was rushed before they could implement it or the series was already compromised at this point (4 has a sex scene) There is also no rain/storm cycle except for the snowy area. If you have an itch for a pre historical setting, tribe wars with limited resources and weapons and you don't care for the story, it's a fun time.

Twilight princess: Played it for the first time, and if one word could describe this game, it would be "underutilised". There is so much stuff that is introduced, but barely used. Remember how you can command eagles for instance? It is used exactly once. How about the slingshot? Almost immediately superseded by the bow. Besides it's spread way too thin. The inspiration from ocarina of time is obvious though. The game does however have several cute girls, other than Midna.

>>1032477 Twilight Princess game design mostly fences utilization of each item to its native dungeon, so dungeons feel new, with less repetition, unique mechanics, and different puzzles. Their character develops around their item, instead of all items, so they're one of a kind. Against dungeon bosses, and within dungeons, items get good utilization, especially the Spinner in Arbiter's Grounds and against Stallord, and the Double Clawshot in City in the Sky and against Argorok, where items are utilized very well. The slingshot gets some utilization in the Forest Temple against Walltulas, and as your general long-range weapon through Ordon Village, the twilight, Faron Woods, the Forest Temple, Hyrule Field, Kakariko Village, Death Mountain, and some of Goron Mines, then the bow's supposed to replace it as your long-range weapon, like the Master Sword replacing the Ordon Sword. Dungeons were spread thick, Twilight Princess has the most 3D dungeons in Zelda, and most dungeons are very good. I agree the Hawk Grass could be used more, though Hawk Grass commanding the Twilit Kargarok like a giant hawk was awesome, where Link flies his pterodactyl-like mount through an aerial obstacle course. Congratulations on finishing Twilight Princess.

>>1032499 I just wish that every item was used as much as as the iron boots. Now there is an item that was utilised to it's fullest potential.

Nier: Automata (ending: A) The combat is quite simple, you can almost single-handedly rely on your drone to do the damage for you, or you can mash low or high attack in any order while pressing 'dodge' whenever an enemy flashes red. As a Yoko Taro connoisseur I am certain that all good and evil characters are clearly labeled, and there will not be any big twists at all in the following endings.

>>1033372 Nier: Automata (ending: F) GUYS, DON'T EAT FISH!

>>1033373 It was good though. Exquisite even. The mackerel is Ending K though

Just beat the main story of Control. I liked it enough, but my god is that game over-rated. Just bait for midwits to endlessly fawn over. Before that I finished a replay of the Half Life 2 episodes. Holds up surprisingly well, even if some chapters are a little drawn out for my liking.

>>1033490 I love HL2 so much man, no game recaptures it no matter how hard they try. Industria was such a disappointment

>>1033543 I do want to play Industria, but I also know it's going to let me down, especially if I play it so soon after finishing the HL2 episodes. I also want to try out a couple of the better HL2 mods, just to see what the community could come up with.

>>1033866 Just note the game is 3 hours at most and the ending isn't very good. They wanted it to be so much more but they just ran out of money and had to finish what they had, being a independent five person team and all. They're making a sequel now, and I imagine that will be much closer to the game they wanted to make. Industria feels like a prologue, a test run for an actual game. Kind of like TES1 or Wolfenstein 3D.

Super Mario Sunhine (Whoohoo!) The fludd is quite the addition to Mario's arsenal. However, I feel most of the levels don't utilize it to its fullest potential, several of the stars/shines can be gotten without using the fludd at all, that's at least how it feels. Besides shine sprite count doesn't really matter in the end, to access the last stage you have to beat episode 6 of each stage. I slso would have liked it more if it was possible to get some shine sprites out of order. Been looking at "super mario sunshine eclipse" seems quite cool, might try it out.

>>1033892 Presuming that the sequel lives up to that standard I can at least respect them for trying and not letting it go to waste by not releasing anything at all. Good to know it's only 3 hours though.

Just finished Slay The Princess: Pristine Cut, and Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion. The former was great. The latter was alright. I was hoping for more interaction with the cute ghost girl, but I also only played the free version of the game. The paid newer versions and DLC add some more to her story, but not enough for me to do more than watch their endings and secrets.

Played Superliminal. A puzzle game focused on depth and perspective set to an at times surreal landscape. Setting/atmosphere wise it feels like a mix of The Stanley Parable and Portal. Also quick note is that I played it on a console. >puzzles kept me interested >setting was strange and kept me wanting to see more of it >music is comfy for the most part >humor wasn't anything terrible like some games tend to be >lots of checkpoints so restart or pickup where ever you were without having to redo much >some puzzle rooms let you cycle the soundtrack if the music is too repetitive >the trippy dream scapes near the end were pretty neat looking <some puzzles were annoying (find the one object you can interact with or another where they didn't explain the mechanics of it enough so I fumbled around like a retard until I finally understood what you can do with the mechanic) <not that long (also has an achievement for beating it in 35 minutes though it took me longer than that) <bad framerate dips on certain levels to the point where physics and item placement gets wonky <I was able to accidentally glitch items through the floor forcing me to restart on two occasions <something about this game gives me a headache so I only played in small bursts.

>>1033373 What happens if you eat fish in Nier: Automata?

Just recently finished Hell Pie, Demon Turf, and Demon: Neon Splash. Hell pie was fun, but not much of a challenge. The gross out humor didn't bother me much and I was actually more bothered by the weak, "haha Nazis are poo" joke because it's just low effort. I did like the boss fight with God and the ending though. Both were fitting. There's a bunch of extra elevators, but sadly it doesn't seem it's getting any expansions, probably on account of a lack of popularity due it's subject matter. I watched speedruns afterwards and besides glitch abuse, the skill ceiling didn't seem that high either. However, the game is very polished. Demon Turf on the other hand is a little janky, but the level of technical feats you can perform with its mechanics is amazing. Sadly, you're not really required anywhere to push the limits of the game's mechanics. I still haven't played Demon Turf: Tower, because all bundled versions fail to load Neon Splash or Tower, and I have yet to acquire a standalone version of Tower. Though the dialogue is mostly poor and the NPCs look like unfinished Deviantart rejects, Beebz herself is cute and likeable. It's like they managed to channel pure MESUGAKI energy. I need another game with as much cute brattiness as this. I have a whole lot of old and new 3D platformers I need to play. I've never even touch Banjo-Kazooie or Conker's Bad Fur Day.

>>1051874 Why would a robot eat fish?

Crysis 2 remastered. I haven't played the original since PS3 so the game was like new to me. First off, it (and Crysis 3R) looks very very good at native 4K. Not just on a technical level with textures etc, it doesn't have any reliance on TAA for subsampled effects, has a fuckton of particle and volumetric effects (without distant fog abuse) and pretty good art direction. Gameplay wise, yeah it's a linear handholdey spectacle shooter, albeit about 12 hours long, and while you do have freedom of action in battle arenas it's still a downgrade from the first half of Crysis, with its huge maps and multiple ways to approach targets. Something I didn't expect is that the story and VO work is actually massively underrated. On a superficial level, sure you're a period typical space marine chara fighting ayy lmaos. But Crysis 2 soft retcons the nanosuit into being ayy tech and the story uses this in a cool way. The suit is designed by a Mr. House clone named Hargeave as a adaptive walking bioweapon against the Ceph, designed to turn their early colonization stage plague against them by evolving the suit itself through contact with ayy DNA. The suit is also a life support system that Hargreave wanted to put himself into to play superhero, since he discovered the Ceph first. But it's acting as life support for (you) since you're half dead at the start of the game. Due to a combination of the suit's design and the traumatic/ayy events you're exposed, the suit basically starts burning the player character as fuel to heal and grow, slowly becoming self-aware as a biological AI mimicking the original suit wearer, Prophet from C1, who starts talking to you in the later parts of the game. At the near end of the game when Hargreave captures you, it's impossible to skin you from the suit because there's nothing human left under it, you go from basically playing as a dreadnought at the start of the game to the suit itself by the end.

>>1051892 Not really a platformer but sort of, I can recommend がんばれゴエモンネオ桃山幕府の踊り on the N64 in Nipponese, the localization is filth. By all accounts 4th wall breaking jokes and meme pop culture references should be make it shit, but it's so genuine in its conduct it becomes heartwarming instead. >>1052387 >spoiler I never liked how they more or less retconned the suit into ayy jebus, it being reverse engineered lmaoware would've been fine but nothing in Crysis 1+Warhead remotely implied it could do what it did throughout Crysis 2 and 3.

>>1052490 Crytek used different writers for every game so the details are really a mess and the place has always been stretched thin between making games and making the engine. Hence why Lingshan games are cursed.

>>987221 Following this I played chapter 1 of Cultic Very good, highly recommend it if you liked Blood, this particular door gave me a serious spook Only complaint is the final boss is kinda bullshit

Finished Iron Brigade as well Really fun game about defending against enemy waves with your upgradable mech and emplacements, that despite its age is still great

Player agency is non existent, I don't feel like I've had a sliver of an opportunity to RP, or develop my character at all. I have no idea who this man is, nor do do I feel like I'm genuinely apart of the world, a feeling elevated by the fact that the characters all blur together into a singular lifeless, banal entity. Everything feels like a set, frequently you're plopped into scenes at an arbitrary pace with no chance to explore. There has genuinely never been another game in the series that has felt so completely off rails and adverse in allowing the player to actually interact with it. And the dialogue. Oh the Maker! Not even just the player's, which is abysmal, but the dialogue holistically is written so astonishingly atrociously that it boggles the mind. Characters incessantly repeat themselves in a carousel of repetition, like you're too addled to have heard them the first time. Here is an example of what I mean (paraphrased but the gist is there): Character A: We’re searching for the Nadas Dirthalan! It’s an archive spirit. Character B: Nadas Dirthalan? Character A: Yes! It’s a spirit that can tell us all about the ancient elves history! A few minutes later Character A: We’re close to the Archive Spirit! I have so many questions to ask it. Another few minutes later, we encounter the anticipated Spirit, it disappears. Character B: Well it’s broken like all the other artifacts here. Character A: it’s not just any artifact! It’s the Nadas Dirthalan! The Archive Spirit! I have so many questions to ask it! *fade to black, teleported to a new location* Character A: blah blah something something Nadas Dirthalan. Character C: Wait! You met the Nadas Dirthalan? The Archive Spirit? We could ask it about the ancient Elven Gods! If they aren't repeating exposition or objectives at you, they're using the most corny and predictable filler dialogue. How many times have you heard "It's quiet here... TOO QUIET." repetitively voiced by NPC's throughout various games, because that exact phrase also exists in Veilguard. I wouldn't be overly astonished to hear a "He's standing right behind me isn't he" or a bland "Well that just happened." Yet this is what we're left with when EA decides to fire their best writers for the series and publicly execute anyone with a shred of ingenuity in this loathsome, wretched, bog ridden company. I am an hour in and I remain unable to concoct anything worthwhile about these characters beyond vague, lacklustre and vapid one or two word descriptions. I could list a fact or two about each character, but these facts are devoid of any substance and personality. Everything feels contrived, as though it was churned out of a box ticking vat and designed solely to adhere to a corporate quota, as opposed to being written by genuine zest brimming impassioned developers. The only character with a shred of personality is wholly due to the talent of the voice actress portraying her, whose voice acting is commendable and worthy of a Grammy award when placed in juxtaposition to the urine streaked script. And that is omitting the rampant political pandering, that is plucked from the writers innermost, zealous gripes with society and used to batter and maul the player into agony stricken capitulation with. I remain bewildered as to why the lead writers to Dragon Age Veilguard would feel compelled to impose modern day ideologies and terminology into a fantasy setting, rife with eldritch machinations of cataclysmic and calamitous woe. An immediate example, that I can recall derives from an obligatory cutscene featuring a dinner betwixt the Qunari companion Taash, her mother and yourself. During this dinner scene, Taash immediately informs her mother that she is a non binary transgender, and at her mother desire in attempting to rationalise her daughter's perceived identity, Taash lashes out and lambasts her mother for not stringently kowtowing to her arguably ludicrous approach to the conversation. Later on in the story, another cutscene, occurring under coercion, emerges where a bronze pigmented swashbuckler named Isabela, publicly flagellates herself afore the party and performs a number of pushups, whilst all in attendance indifferently observe. This self flagellating ritual of humiliation is prompted because Isabela erroneously refers to Taash as a female, which she is. Naturally, these two scenarios featured above are inherently ridiculous and detract from any semblance of credibility in the story for two reasons. Firstly, these cutscenes, which to reiterate are not voluntary, where pronouns are bandied and pushups of ignominy occur, are conducted in a setting where the entire land is riven by war, hamlets are set ablaze, lowly peons are dragged away into decrepit burrows to be sacrificed and the nobles enter insidious, clandestine covenants with apparitions of dusk. It is bewildering to contemplate, even momentarily, that pronouns would be acknowledged, let alone be a central plot point in a companions story, whilst the very whims of fire and war ravage the countryside. Secondly, the identical modern day terminology, proclaimed by Slaneesh enthralled vermin in the modern day, is used in the exact same framework for this fantasy setting. Vernacular such as 'non binary' and 'pronouns' are perpetually repeated in this fictional expanse, being used in an identical manner from what you'd anticipate from a newly indoctrinated, freshly independent adolescent, whose since moved into a university dorm, occupied by three Asiatics and several acolytes of the fermented, malaise ridden, six coloured rainbow. You would presume that the writers, knowing that this is a conspicuous, clearly defined fantasy setting, with a distinct subset of lore, history, culture and norms, would at minimum have the ingenuity to interpose a unique parlance into the game, converting the colloquial LGHDTV orientated phrases into something that is less jarring in contrast to the rest of the setting. An example of what I am alluding too is depicted in Veilguard, when Taash's mother attempts to rationalise her daughter's newfound delusions by referring to the Qunari dialect and customs, yet inexplicably the writers decided to never dwell on that again and reverted back to modern day terminology that denigrates the overarching lore featured in the story. Essentially, if the writers made the effort to morph terms such as 'non binary', 'pronouns' and the idea of transgenderism into something that was at least vaguely applicable to the setting depicted, it may have at the very minimum been rationalised and possibly accepted as reasonable by the most devout of fans. Albeit, currently, this flagrant insertion of the writers personal gender identity is now subject to ridicule and mockery, and has become a catalyst for one of the games most glaring flaws, with that being the poorly woven, uninspired writing, likely derived from tortured interns, fortune cookies, Tumblr blogposts and Discord vent channels. Summarily, as an avid Dragon Age fan, I’ve seen fanfics treat the lore with more respect. Major reveals that should have been memorable, devolve into shallow manifestations of the writers unintelligible and rainbow encoded balderdash. It is blatantly apparent that fifteen years of punctilious world building has been set alight and morphed into a charred wreckage, a remnant of its former glory, and despite my respect for the initial instalments in this series, it's equally clear that avarice and rampant political lecturing, that comes across as simultaneously condescending and pandering in nature, has ultimately undermined the quality of Veilguard and caused it to besmirch the otherwise pristine reputation fostered over a decade and a half by the previous entries. Candidly, Veilguard does not even remotely do justice to the legacy cultivated and as a result will likely fade into obscurity, being regarded as the black sheep of an otherwise enthralling setting.

>>1055736 Acolytes of the Six Coloured Rainbow sounds like an excellent name for a cult or a chaos marine warband.

>>1055736 Why would you play with trash when you could play GOOD games?

>>1055736 >Characters incessantly repeat themselves in a carousel of repetition, like you're too addled to have heard them the first time. Because people addled enough to play with trash like Dragon Age: The Veilguard ARE too addled to have heard them the first time.

>>790791 I finished the two Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance games. The second game ends up with the setup for a third but it never happened because Black Isle was shut down (the inspiration for my "Vidya Necromancy" thread). The first game was rough around the edges. The entire third act didn't have a proper hub where you could replenish supplies and even recall to a place of safety until well into it. I played as the Elven sorceress because she had nice tits, and her spells and fragility made me play differently from my usual unga bunga melee builds. I had fun, even if it was unpolished in places, but some of the bosses were just damage rushes while spamming potions. The second game was much better, a real 9/10. The only thing it needed were, again, boss fights that weren't shit, especially in the latter half of the game. There are more characters to play as in the sequel (including a human cleric with even bigger tits than the elf) and I played as her for my first (and probably only) playthrough. If I do play through it again I might play as the drow, who has smaller tits, because despite being a nigger she is a monk who specialises in hand to hand unarmed combat, and I find that interesting. You spend the majority of the second game traveling in and out of Baldur's Gate, unlike the first game where it's only the first act of three. It makes for a nice consistent hub and allows for the side characters to be more fleshed out. There are side areas in the second game too, allowing for more exploration and sense of adventure, where the first game was just a linear set of dungeons with little deviation from the narrative line. All in all I'd rate the first game a five or six out of ten, and the second game an eight or nine. Three stars and four stars respectively out of five I guess. Back to playing KOTOR2 and enjoying another great developer who had the unfortunate fate of surviving until modern times and becoming a flesh-wearing shambler of its former self. RIP Black Isle and I wish you were put out of your misery Obsidian.

Demon's Souls (PS5 remake) I never played all the way through the original Demon's Souls. I couldn't stand the shitty framerate and muddy visuals. This game cures both those things. As for the game itself, it's actually quite easy compared to other Souls games. The only two bosses I really had trouble with were the armoured fire spider and the two maneaters. Most other bosses were defeated in one or two attempts. Flamelurker took three, I think, until I got the timing right on the anticlockwise dodge roll to avoid his AOE smash. Some enemy variety was more difficult than the bosses, such as the crossbowmen and the three red-eye knights before the Penetrator boss fight. I died on several approaches but finished the boss on the first attempt. I played a melee build, using only a bow for some ranged attacks, such as the botflies in the swamp, and kept my equipment load low so I could fast roll. Basically I played it like I play all Souls games. Level design was pretty linear and not as intricate as I'm used to in a Souls game. I guess as the first in the series (not counting progenitors like Kings Field) it's normal for it to be not-quite the formula that successive games used. Music was great, as usual. Sound design was pretty spot-on. I really enjoy games that know how to use silence and ambience to build atmosphere (the original Tomb Raider games did this really well). DEI wise, there's a nog that you meet first in the game, and the opening cut-scene features minorities and women front and centre. Sadly expected from Sony these days, changing shit just to tick some diversity boxes. Overall I found the game fairly short and linear. I got the "nice" ending (didn't kill that someone) but I don't think I'll go through and play it again for the other ending, or both getting trophies. it's nice to get trophies when they pop but when you're grinding out content just to tick-boxes it just bores me to fucking tears. I'll probably move back to Dark Souls 1 next as I haven't played that in a while, and I feel like sticking in the genre. I haven't finished it on Playstation before. I'm not going to do the grind for trophies in DaS1 either. I did them on Steam way back when (in the Prepare to Die edition, not the remaster) and CBF doing it again. Overall I'd give the game a solid four out of five stars, maybe four and a half/9 out of 10 if I'm being generous. Great game, but overshadowed by the better games that came after, though I would certainly understand if some have this as their favourite in the genre/series.

Recently played and finished the Project Zero 4 remake which has now lead me to emulating and replaying 1, 2, and 3. I forgot how good the series was up until 5 which was pretty meh.

OUTER WILDS Finished this game in December, and found it quite enjoyable. It's indeed a really solid game and does somewhat live up to the hype around it. It's a puzzle game of sorts where you're sent out to explore your solar system and try to help investigate and solve the mysteries of the Nomai, a race of strange goatmen-like creatures that came before you in this solar system. Of course it's not that simple, as you end up stuck in a 22 minute time loop ending with your sun exploding, so the game becomes about figuring out why you're in the time loop and trying to figure out the secrets of the Nomai and get out of this time loop accordingly, and more, as you'll find out when playing it. Gameplay consists of going to the various planets and trying to figure out what happened there, and linking it with what happened on other planets and piece things together to figure out how to progress and the whole "story" of what the Nomai were up to and trying to accomplish. There's a setting to have interconnected hints that's on by default, which creates a sort of schizo red-lines corkboard for the hints, but it makes the game much easier and I find it much more enjoyable with this setting turned off and recommend you do the same if you're going to play it. The DLC is also a must-include, as it adds an additional 10 hours or so to the gameplay and deals with another species who stumbled upon your solar system much earlier, and their strange spacecraft and machinery, with the gimmick being the puzzles taking place on one big space station instead of across a whole solar system. The DLC also adds to the lore of the system and explains some of the oddities about the base story better. Overall, a really enjoyable experience that I recommend every anon give a try. Try to get the DLC as well, if you're going to play it, as I'd say it's a key part of the greater story the game is trying to tell. I'd say it's worth the asking price but it's just as easy to pirate it, with how popular the game is. I would say more, but as the game is one big puzzle it's best to go in as blind as possible so you have to figure everything out on your own.

>>1063907 >DEI wise, there's a nog that you meet first in the game, and the opening cut-scene features minorities and women front and centre. Sadly expected from Sony these days, changing shit just to tick some diversity boxes. Unfortunately it goes further than just DEI checkboxing.

I finally finished playing through Dishonored and its DLCs. Main game: It's solid. Some normalfags praise is as the most amazing and reactive game there is. It isn't. There are games that do both better, with Deus Ex probably being the best to this day. Still, Dishonored offers more interesting interactions and options for emergent gameplay than typical AAA games do. However, the alternative ways to deal with main targets are very, very heavily telegraphed and very railroad-y. It's better than Bioshock choices but not that far from them. They do not feel as earned as different paths feel in other games that boast about freedom and possibilities. The non-deadly ways to deal with key targets feel just far too convenient in most cases. The game should make you work for them a bit more. Dishonored's plot is a typical betrayal and revenge story. And choices, while limited to death and non-lethal poetic justice, help it a bit despite their issues. There isn't much meat on story's bones but it works for Dishonored. Game's world is interesting even though it feels small. It was very obvious to me that all notes and world building were taken just far enough to set the backdrop for the game but not an inch further. Gameplay is solid, although the limit of five unconscious per area makes the game easy to cheese when going for a ghost play through. Stealth in general is OK, and abilities make it fun and more fluid than in other games. With some thought and planning, it's possible to use a combination of blinking, possession, and time stop to zoom around the map undetected. It's pretty satisfying. Abilities are very polished in general. There was a decent amount of thought given to them and to interaction they have not only with enemies but with environment and with each other. That makes combat more entertaining than being a stealthy assassin. Head-on assaults or stealth ambushes that turn into brawls are simply more fun. Even if combat and animations are basic, the amount of options offered by combining abilities keeps it fresh throughout the game. Another element that works against stealth for me is the level design. Some feel too padded and repetitive. Luckily, blinking around and possessions make crossing them relatively hassle free when playing stealthy. Daud's DLCs are overall better than the main game. I appreciate how focused levels are in the DLCs. All the unnecessary fat is trimmed. Similarly, the abilities are a little bit more fun. Blink is bundled with freeze time and that opens a lot of new possibilities. Pull ability unlocked later on is good, especially when upgraded to move heavy objects. Choke dust is very useful and I am surprised it was not in the main game. Same with the incapacitating mines. They are obvious ideas, easy to implement, and would spice up the stealth and non-lethal paths. Only lackluster ability is one that improves summoned assassins. I think it would be better to bundle it with the summon assassins skill and maybe add a third rank to that one to give summoned assassins more abilities. As it is now, summon assassin and this skill feel a bit too expensive for what they offer. Especially with the more limited rune supply in the DLCs. Extra objectives require more work and thought. For example, to frame one of the targets and get him imprisoned, you need to infiltrate his office, tail him and plant incriminating document in his pocket before he reaches the location of a meeting with a military official. Finding alternative ways to deal with targets feels a little bit less telegraphed to me. Oftentimes, you need to meet with people who are actually plotting against them and you need to do more legwork than in the main game to make non-lethal approaches work. And for approaches where most work is done for you, they are cost cash in the favors system. Only exception is the very last mission of the second Daud DLC. That nonlethal setup is probably the most obvious in the whole game. Enemies are largely the same but with addition of witches and ghost hounds. Witches are a fun change of pace. They are challenging during first few encounters, especially since they surprise Daud and are unlike any other enemies (although they share some elements with assassins). After dealing with a couple of them, they will be manageable but more interesting to face than guards. Being attentive and planning engagements is all that's needed to handle them. Story, like in the original, is nothing special but competent enough. It's another betrayal and revenge plot but this time with a redemption angle thrown in. It's spiced up with witches, and brevity of the DLCs helps the story to not overstay its welcome. What's nice is that some of the minor and secondary DLC characters are encountered in later missions. It would be nice if the main game did some of that. Instead, most NPCs are disposable and limited to single missions. Only ones that aren't are the crime lord, old woman, and residents of the hound's pub. My only major complaint about the DLCs is that it's very obvious at times that they clearly were lower budget than the main game. Dunwall City Trials are standard challenge maps. Most are fine but nothing special. Some challenges can be borderline impossible to max rank without getting lucky RNG. Where the game really shines for me is the art direction. Textures look like they were oil painted, tying them thematically with the whale oil-based industry in the game. Slums look appropriately drab and the art team managed to do it without overreliance on gray and brown like most media does. They contrast nicely with luxurious locations that upper classes live in. In between them, there are factories, prisons, military installations, and other parts of the city in various states of decay. Each is unique but still feels like a part of the same world. Levels take place during different times of day too, and that goes further to make environments interesting. There are night time levels, ones at noon, dawn, dusk, afternoon, and sunset. Character design is great too. Everyone has exaggerated features but not to the extreme. Only game I remember going for something similar is Brink but that took it too far, and half characters looked like cavemen or homunculi. Dishonored does it much better, and pairs it with great costume design too. Levels and characters are in general great to look at. As is all the machinery found in the game. Only two complaint I have is that the same effort did not go into the generic NPCs and weepers. There are only few variations and they repeat often.

>>1073210 >Where the game really shines for me is the art direction. Did you write this knowing the art director died last week? Maybe that was the reason you even played the game? To honor him? That's very kind of you.