The game faced many problems during its production and had to be delayed several times. So is Dying Light 2 a game worth playing? After playing the game for about 50 hours, I was able to finish it along with most of the activities and side quests it offered. In this review article, I will share my opinion about Dying Light 2.

Also read: New World Preview: Stay Away From This Game!

Atmosphere and Story

I regret to say that the the atmosphere provided in the Dying Light 2 is overshadowed by its lack luster story.

The zombie epidemic in Harran (the main story of Dying Light 1) ended with the death of all the citizens of the city. However, Global Relief Effort (GRE) developed a vaccine for the “Harran Virus” (THV) that put an end to the threat of the zombie epidemic. Unfortunately, despite a promise to stop all research on THV, GRE continued to secretly experiment on the virus. In 2021, a mutated variant of THV escapes a GRE lab and starts a second pandemic that spreads even faster than the first. The vaccine was ineffective against the newer version of THV, but its effects could be suppressed by ultraviolet light.

So, the game takes place fifteen years from now, in 2036. Most of the world’s population has been destroyed, with human civilization in a handful of scattered settlements. The story takes place in the fictional European city of Villedor. The character we play, Aiden Caldwell, is a Pilgrim who is brave enough to travel between human settlements. He decides to go to Villedor in search of his missing sister Mia, and there our game begins.

The game is actually off to a strong start. However, while it was fun to get to know the characters and the world for the first few hours, the mediocre dialogues and simple progression of the story took my enjoyment out of the game. I played the whole game with a friend in co-op. After a certain point, the serious story turned into comedy because of the mediocrity of the story and the dialogues. This amused us, but it’s clear the developers of the game didn’t plan for this.

Coming to the atmosphere, the game is really awesome in this respect. The city, which has been infested with zombies for 10 years, looks very realistic. The city itself is divided into two large parts. At first you start a little outside the city center. This place is ideal for you to learn the parkour mechanics of the game because the buildings are not that tall. The city center, on the other hand, is a huge place and turns the game into a zombie version of Mirror’s Edge. In other words, Dying Light 2 offers an absolutely believable atmosphere.

Gameplay

Dying Light 2 is almost the same as the first game in terms of gameplay. With a big caveat: the firearms found in the first game are not available in this one. This forces the game to be melee centered. It goes on like this until you find the bows. It’s hard to play the game using only your weapon’s basic attack. The game is basically made for parkour and acrobatic moves.

The skills in the game are divided into two: parkour and combat skills. To increase these abilities, you need to do specific moves like Skyrim. Apart from that, you can increase the health and stamina values ​​with the inhibitors in the game. As these values ​​increase, the abilities you can unlock also expand.

It is almost mandatory to use the acrobatic moves that the game offers you in high-level difficulties. This is okay as it also makes the game more fun. However, most of the skills in Dying Light 2 are just basic movements sets that were available from the start in Dying Light 1. This may annoy some players.

Apart from that, the biggest problem of the game is that the game becomes extremely easy once you gain access to bows. Once you have them, you can now delete Dying Light 2, because it turns the game into a child’s toy. I hope this issue will be fixed in future updates, but they are very cheap to use right now and because they do high damage they brake the whole balance of the game.

Also read: Outriders Review: Is It Worth Your Money?

Gaming Activities and Other Systems

As an open world game, Dying Light 2 has many different activities. Side stories aside, the activities of the game are based on either combat mechanics or parkour. Since parkour in the game is extremely fun, I focused on these more.

In Dying Light 2, there are 2 different factions related to the story, these are peacekeepers and survivors. In the game, you can give different regions to one of these two groups. Doing this gives you different bonuses. For example, the 4th bonus of peacekeepers gives you the most powerful item of the game: the crossbow. You can basically delete the game once you receive it. If I wasn’t playing with my friend, I would have deleted the game 30 minutes after I got this item.

The game also has full blown RPG mechanics. You can build close or long range builds with the armors you find. The system they set up looks good on paper, but the OP bows in the game force you to wear items that allow you to increase long-range damage. Of course, you can limit yourself by not using bows, but I’m someone who likes to wear the strongest items the game has to offer. If the game isn’t balanced in this respect, it’s entirely the developer’s fault.

Apart from that, the activities offered by the side missions may vary. Some of them are the same and can really bore you, but most of them are fun.

Just like the 1st game, Dying Light 2 also has a detailed crafting system. You can customize your weapons by attaching different parts. To do this, you need to find different items in the game world and upgrade them with the zombie parts. This system was a lot of fun at the beginning of the game, but again it was wasted because of the bows. The thing is, you don’t need to upgrade the bows, and the crossbow is an item that levels up with you. This means that you can completely bypass the game’s crafting system.

As another example, the parachute and the grappling hook that you acquire in the middle of the game allows you to bypass all the parkour systems of the game. After hours of unlocking your parkour skills this really upset me.

Conclusion

Dying Light 2 was, for me, an average game in the truest sense of the word. The awesome parkour and detailed crafting systems in the game are completely wasted due to some OP items. Likewise, the beautiful atmosphere offered by the game cannot stand out due to the mediocrity of the story and the dialogues. If you are not a zombie fan, definitely do not buy Dying Light 2 at the full price. Maybe the game’s systems may change in the future, but it is impossible to fix the story. So even when you buy the game, don’t play it alone.

The post Dying Light 2: Review appeared first on Esportimes.

Clunky Hero has a simple story. You try to save your wife after she gets abdocuted by a monster. There are also some side stories that add some different characters other than the main plot.

Story Elements

The story that I mentioned briefly in the introduction is actually enough to summarize the whole game. A monster, whose name the villagers are afraid to even say, has abdocted your wife. Thus, we embark on a journey. Along the way, we encounter many different characters. While some of them give side quests, some only tell the stories of their relatives that they lost to that creature. Sometimes they add much needed humor in to the game.

Clunky Hero is filled with dark humor. Plus, the main character of the game constanlty breaks the 4th wall. For example, he says things like “I think I’m taking a side quest right now…”. I guess that’s all I can say about the story. The production team wrote funny dialogues and created a story that started and ended within itself. I didn’t have much trouble as I realized that I missed these kind of simple and short stories. But if you’re expecting the Hotline Miami mania from an indie, you might be disappointed.

Gameplay

Unlike the story, the Clunky Hero’s gameplay is actually disappointing. The gameplay feels uninspired and basic.The mechanics and our character develop as the game progresses. We are constantly acquiring new weapons and equipment. Although these may seem like nice differences, the truth of the matter is not. You gain new weapons. But with each new weapon, you notice more clearly that there are “hit box” problems in the game. As your character becomes more powerfull the game becomes too easy. As a result, gameplay becames stale really quickly.

The AI also needs some improvements. Enemies usually wait to be killed, rather than putting an actual fight. Besides, it is not very enjoyable to use weapons. You get the feeling of hitting the air as if you are playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. There are two details that make you feel like you were hit or shot during the battle. The first is the sound of damage, and the second is the shaking of the screen when you take or inflict damage. This shaking thing is so sickening. I had to play the game by taking a break every 1 hour. It was tiring on the eyes and did not leave any good memories in my stomach. After a while I was forced to flee the battle, unless I had to. As a result of this, I can say that I finished the game extremely quickly.

Technical details

At this point I must admit that I am in a dilemma. Since the game is an indie production and also in early access, I have to accept the vast majority of the problems. However, since I still want to go over all the issues, I divide the technical parts into “early access acceptable bugs” and “early access unacceptable bugs”. Before moving on to the problems, there are a few things I want to say. First of all, the graphics are very cute. From our main character to the forest creatures in the game etc. its all very inspiring. It doesn’t look very high quality. However, since the developers are indie, I will not whine about why the graphics.

The music literally makes you feel like you’re in a fairy tale. The atmosphere is very light in tones and supports one’s enthusiasm for playing. On the other hand, the gameplay sounds inside the game are not as successful as the music. Now that I have made a negative sentence, we can move on to examining the problems.

When I first left the game paused for a long time and then reopened it, I often encountered short-term freezes. In addition, there are incredible shifts in the sounds of some enemy types in the game and the nail-like objects that appear to make the platform parts difficult. However, since these are not major issues and do not disrupt gameplay, I hope these get fixed during the early access period.

However, it sometimes took me minutes to find my way, since the concept of location and direction in the game did not use any advanced system other than maps and the game design was really badly poured into the system. Some textures also look like they’re from the early 2000s. Particle effects have been chosen in a way that does not match the graphics at all. It looks extremely disorienting.

Conclusion

Clunky Hero offers a funny story, has bad gameplay, lacks in some aspects and doesnt stand out in any meaningful way. However, I was able to finish the story without getting too frusturatred. Although I was getting really bored in the end.

You can check Clunk Hero for yourself at its Steam page.

The post Clunky Hero Review appeared first on Esportimes.

I played the game for an average of 16 hours and reviewed all the campaigns, missions and contents. In order to share it with you in an objective way, I will share with you my thoughts about the game under 6 different titles. All words written after this text contain subjective thoughts.

The Content

When you first start the game, it puts you in a short training section to learn the gameplay techniques. It teaches the entire gameplay in this training, which lasts about 25-30 minutes.

After the training, there are campaign and mission modes in the main menu. Unfortunately, if you fail the mission in the campaign mode, you cannot play that part again. That’s why I recommend you to learn the game and its mechanics in the mission mode first and then switch to the campaign mode. It gives you small but very valuable tips about the game in the game loading areas. You can be more successful in missions by browsing them in the loading area.

After missions, a screen comes up that informs you about your success or failure. It gives you a point by evaluating it according to the damage you have taken at the end of the mission and the missions you have done. No Plan B players all over the world see the scores you make, and a ranking is created in the game according to the high scores made.

Gameplay

I think the best part of No Plan B is the gameplay. With different camera angles, you can move all the characters in the game according to your plan. This gives you literally unlimited tactical and planning possibilities. You can equip your characters with the weapons and equipment you want and complete the task with the planning you want within the time given to you by the task. After making the planning, all you have to do is monitor the task. If your planning fails, unfortunately, you have no chance to go back. Because there is no No Plan B (pun intended).

I can say that the AI in the game is at a mediocre level. I can’t say anything about artificial intelligence for my characters because I directed every second of it, where to aim, etc. But the enemy AI was pretty bad in some missions. However, since the game is currently in early access, it would be unreasonable to give a precise judgment on this issue. Because we are talking about a game that will be developed for 12 months.

In the game, you can gain superiority against your enemies by using flash bombs, smoke bombs or grenades. However, since you cannot see the location of the enemies during planning, you have to plan them purely as hypotheses. That’s why you need to direct your characters to look at all the remarkable points. Otherwise, you may lose some of your characters because of an episode you didn’t look at. Unfortunately, the characters you lose do not return in the campaign mode.

You can have more information about the game by watching the gameplay content shared by the game’s developer down below.

Classes

There are 4 different classes in the game. These are called SWAT, FBI, Robbers and Gangsters. Each class has its own unique equipment. However, equipment of different classes can also be purchased from the store with the game’s currency. The skill characteristics of the classes differ, but I have to state that it doesn’t make that much difference to me in the game. In the campaign mode of the game, there are 8 characters in all classes and all characters have special abilities. You can improve your characters with the success points you earn from the missions you succeed in the campaign mode. The special abilities you can develop in all characters are the same, and I need to point out that it doesn’t have much of an effect after you don’t upgrade it much.

Story

Unfortunately, one of the biggest cons of this game is that it does not have a story. There is no story of any class in the game. This situation caused me to get bored after a certain period of time from the game. It is interesting that there are different mission areas and campaign sections in the game, but after a certain period of time, the game becomes stale. Of course, we do not know whether there will be a story as it is in early access, but I think that there should definitely be a story mode in the future.

Weapons

There are 5 types of weapons and a total of 23 weapons in the game. The producer states that they will also add more equipment in the early access. However, I think the variety of weapons is sufficient for now. There are special weapons for each class, but you can also buy weapons specific to other classes with game money from the store. The types of weapons in the game are as follows:

• Long-barreled guns
• Shotguns
• Short range weapons
• Sniper rifles
• Pistols

Each weapon type has different models between classes, and their skill abilities differ slightly among themselves.

Rewards

After successful missions in the campaign mode of the game, you gain the advantages indicated by the green icons. Currently, there are 3 different advantage options in the game.

• Health Benefit: Refills your entire team’s health bar.
• Gear Perk: Refills your entire team’s gear.
• Locating Advantage: Shows the areas where the enemies are in the mission with a 10% margin of error.

These benefits allow you to be more successful in missions and protect your team as you progress in campaign mode. The numbers in the yellow section indicate the skill points that will be given to you after successfully completing the task. Depending on the difficulty of the task, the skill points vary between 1 and 3 in the tasks. By using the skill points you get on your characters, you can improve them and make them better. Remember, you cannot retry the missions you failed in the campaign mode. Therefore, putting your team in danger by saying that I will do a great job can be a bad option.

Extras

In No Plan B we will also be able to play maps created by communities! I think this feature is very nice. Players will be able to create their own maps and missions. In this way, there will be more interaction with other players. There are now more than 20 community missions in the game, and I quite liked most of them. Also, making a community map is very simple. You enter the map generator from within the game and you can prepare the task as you wish. I think the community missions will increase a lot after the game is released. I think this is a very good feature.

Conclusion

No Plan B is a good game in my opinion. I think people who like this kind of strategy and simulation games will like it too. The gameplay feels very fluid once you get used to it. There are minor errors in the game, but they are not exaggerated. At least I didn’t encounter any major bugs. The biggest shortcoming of the game for me is that it doesn’t have a story. I think it is very important to have a story in these games. Because the game becomes monotonous after a certain period of time and can cause you to get bored.

At the moment, I think it is very inadequate in terms of mission and other game content. However, I expected missions to be more diverse and interconnected (at least in campaign missions). Apart from these, the graphics of the game are good enough, the system requirement is at a level that most computers can meet today.

The absence of the story causes the player to be completely saturated after a certain point. However, I think No Plan B will do very well while being developed. As long as the game continues to be developed with the players in early access, I believe it will become much better.

The post Review: No Plan B appeared first on Esportimes.

Since MMOs are generally a dying genre, I was really exited to play Amazon’s New World MMO, which is coming on August 31st. I played the closed beta for about 20 hours, and Although I tried to love the game, unfortunately my experience was not good.

Of course, this does not mean that everyone should stay away from this game. Therefore, in this preview, I will be talking about the pros and cons of New World.

Are There Any Good Things About New World?

Before moving on to why I don’t like this game, I would like to talk about the good aspects of New World. Unfortunately, there is not much to be said here.

The visual design of the game meets the modern MMO standards. So, the graphics are not super great but I can say that a generally it offers a pleasing color palette and good enough textures. At the end of the day, ultra realistic graphics would negatively affect the experience because you have to be in places where more than 50 players are together in the same area. So, average graphics are usually a good middle ground for MMOs.

The world offered by the game is also good enough. The game takes place in an alternate colonial era. As players, we are set off to the island of Aeternum. This island has a mystical vibe. Everyone living on the island becomes immortal. But this also drives people crazy and turns them into monsters. While trying to survive on the island, we are also trying to solve the mysteries of it. In this respect, the design of the island really develops on the mystical elements. Design-wise, I can say that a good job has been done here.

The game’s combat system is action-oriented, unlike classic MMOs. It is very similar to Elder Scrolls Online in that respect. The fact that it is action-oriented is a positive point for me because that old system where you click on an enemy and use dozens of skills have completely alienated me after playing ESO.

That is it. Even these features that I mentioned as good should be considered average under normal circumstances.

Why Should You Stay Away From New World?

First of all, I would like to state that I only played the game for 20 hours. So I don’t know what the endgame experience of New World is like. However, if we look at what people who have experienced it, we see that it is weak like the rest of the game.

So why is the New World so bad? I can give many answers to this. But basically the game has a big problem. Lack of in-game content. This issue is made worse because the developers of the game have no direction.

Questing in New World is atrocious. The game basically has 2 types of missions. Going from A to B, killing someone and returning, or picking up an object. THAT’S IT. It should be a crime to launch such a system in 2021.

In terms of PvP, the game is really weak. The economy and power balance in the game is based on PvP, but the winner does not get anything substantial. Once you have captured a region with your clan/faction, you can start collecting taxes, but what will you do with these taxes? Nothing. Having a player driven economy sounds good on paper, however, it usually sucks.

The PvP system itself is already mediocre. When you play with long-range characters, your own team works against you because objects can touch your teammates. Large-scale PvP skirmishes are also completely unplayable at the moment. Server issues and combat mechanics not having a good PvP feel are the 2 biggest issues here.

The game also has a really comprehensive Survival system. To survive outside of towns, you need to know how to hunt, cook and camp. I think it’s a good thing that survival mechanics are mandatory. However, at the beginning of the game, most recipes, armors, etc. are locked behind a huge grind. Asking for more than 10 hours of grind for a basic recipe is bad game design. MMOs need grind yes, but the first stages should always be easy to get to. Restricting people in the first place will only alienate players.

It Gets Worse & Worse…

It is also difficult to level up in the game in general. This may be a beta-exclusive issue, so I don’t want to complain for too long here. However, after hitting level 10, it is not fun to level up with the horrible questing system, as it is already subpar.

Let’s talk about the action-oriented combat system. I already mentioned that it is similar to ESO. However, it is much more limited. Since there is no class system in the game, you level up using different types of weapons. But each weapon only has 2 skill trees. Since New World doesn’t have class abilities like ESO, this almost completely destroys the ability to create proper builds.

The character creation process is also really bad. As you can seen above, there are several different categories. You can’t customize your character in an extensive manner. You have to choose from slider and presets. There are very few of these options and most of them are really ugly. This results in most of the characters in the game being similar to each other.

What more can be said? Towns in the game are almost identical to each other. Traveling between these towns also take a very long time. You have to use a special currency for fast travel and it’s really hard to earn in the early game. Therefore, it is very possible that you will get bored of the game while traveling between towns.

With so many shortcomings, it is worth saying that New World is not a F2P game. It is priced at $40. It also has an in game shop, where you buy costumes and boosters with real money. I mean it is fine to earn money, but don’t expect people to pay for a mediocre product.

Finally, there is one thing that I find really ridiculous, and that is the lack of swimming mechanics in a game set on a tropical island in a middle of an ocean. Like, really?

Conclusions

Actually, I can say much more about New World, but as you can see from what I wrote, the game has a lot of shortcomings. So does this game really have no potential? No, the foundation of the game is still solid. The combat system has a good enough foundation. Likewise, the game’s world and basic mechanics are not bad either. However, Elder Scrolls Online is a better version of this game in every way. If you haven’t played it, I highly recommend it. ESO also has its flaws, but it certainly isn’t as bad as New World.

Even if New World is due next month, it will definitely be an Early Access kind of game. If Amazon does not pull the plug on the game within 1 year, the game can maybe develop enough to be in a “playable” state. However, if anyone is thinking of playing this game on day 1, they should definitely change their plans.

The post New World Preview: Stay Away From This Game! appeared first on Esportimes.

First of all, what is this game and what is it about? Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order is a mix of genres including action, adventure, metroidvania, souls-like and role-playing. There are probably very few games that contain such a variety of game genres. In this context, it would not be wrong to say that Fallen Order is like a soup, because the developers tried to combine a lot of different game elements. Don’t get me wrong, this soup is the kind you really want to drink and lick the plate clean. This is because the developers have done a fantastic job of integrating all these different elements. However, there are some parts which are “meh”.

Gameplay

The game has a wide range of gameplay elements, as it contains many different genres. Let’s first talk about the lightsaber and the force abilities, which are indispensable mechanics of most Star Wars games. Using the lightsaber really makes you feel like a Jedi, because, the sound effects and animations are really good. Especially towards the middle of the game, when you acquire the double lightsaber. The only weakness – probably to avoid dealing with the age restriction – was the lack of blood effects and dismemberment.

Force powers are gradually open as the game progresses. For example, at first, we only have the power to slow down everything that moves around, but later on, we gain features such as pulling the enemy to ourselves and finishing them with a lightsaber, or pushing the enemies down from the platform, thanks to different skill trees in the game. Using the force itself is extremely fun. There are also puzzles that require force powers, and I can say that there were enjoyable.

Fallen Order also has a lot of Uncharted-style platforming sections. These sections were obviously put in order to make the game more interactable. However, in some of those instances, I had to constantly look at the map because some parts were unintuitive and overcomplex.

Difficulty & The AI

In the first hours of the game, the enemies can make you say “this is too hard”. This is where souls like features come into play. You determine the difficulty level of the game, but if you play anything above normal, things get hot. There is a bonfire system in the game, which is very similar to Dark Souls games. You also lose your XP when you die. There are some differences such as names and certain mechanics, but the core combat is definitely built on top of souls like game.

Finally, let’s talk about the AI. It is definitely not very smart. For example, after you move 2-3 meters away, they say like “where did this Jedi go?”, and then go back to doing whatever they were doing before. Unless they see you, they don’t move naturally. They’re just pacing the same route. It’s not that I don’t like the fact that imperial soldiers are so stupid though. However, all the enemies, except the bosses, have the same move sets. This sometimes takes you out of your immersion. Overall however the combat is fun and the AI does not effect it that much. Hopefully, it is improved in the next game.

The Story

Now it’s time for the story. Our story is set about 5 years after the Order 66. You are trying to find a holocron that has the names and the location of force sensitive children. As you go on in this journey you find new allies and enemies. The big bad villains in this game are the imperial inquisitors. The cinematic narration, was done in a very good way. The story is very emotional and a delight to true Star Wars fans.

As for the characters…they are fine. Our main character, Cal, is a calm-spirited character, with some hatred in him. As for the side characters, first of all, Cere is a pretty badly designed character. She has nothing special, other than being a former Jedi. She is only there to offer a plot point and nothing else. I don’t even remember the name of the other side character, the pilot, he was there. The Sister of the Night, who joined us later, is the most interesting one in my opinion. Her backstory fits perfectly into the wider Star Wars lore. I hope she is a playable character, in the next game.

Final Words

First of all, our battles with bosses are a bit underwhelming, frankly. I was expecting more enemies that use lightsabers. It’s a shame there are like three, but their boss fights are really good. Frankly, I liked the Vader sequences in the last part of the game, but I think those scenes could have been a little longer. We could have given him a few sword blows and then Vader would have probably just laughed as if nothing had happened to him. There were so many options, I felt like they took it easy, but that was also satisfying, after all, we might never have seen Vader.

This game is probably THE Star Wars game, akin to the early 2000s Star Wars: Knights of Old Republic. Of course, it’s not a game on the same level. However, the two games are very similar to each other, as they offer the fans an immersion on a unique scale. Narratively, it really feels like a Jedi story set between the third and fourth movies, the emotional scenes in this regard, are very successful. Especially seeing the death of our master made me very emotional while playing the game.

The variety of enemies is good enough. The developers have designed the enemies very well. In addition, there are tools in the game that offer different interactions. The fact that there is a droid named BD-1 that accompanies us throughout the game is fantastic. We are in constant communication with it throughout the game, and it has special abilities that help us.

Conclusion

As a whole, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order offers a unique blend of different mechanics and genres. The story is also well made. Although there are some technical issues, like game crashes here and there, they don’t completely ruin the experience. For the next game, I hope they work on the side-character development and improve the AI. If you have Xbox Games Pass / EA subscription or see it on a discount, definitely get this game.

The post Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order: Review appeared first on Esportimes.

So the first few days were a bit painful. However, I managed to play the game for around 45 hours in total in the last few weeks. During this time, I played the story from beginning to end with one of the 4 classes of the game. I also played the end game content. Throughout my adventure, I tried playing on the hardest difficulty possible.

In this review, I will be sharing my opinions and see if the game was worth my money. You can also check our preview, where we do a more general assessment.

The Story

To summarize the story without giving too many spoilers: The earth becomes uninhabitable, so some humans got on a spaceship and left it. Of course, these people were successful and smart people. After a long time sleeping in space, we finally reach our new home called Enoch. Although everything starts very well at first, things get wild really quickly.

After encountering a paranormal storm, later called Anomaly, most of our team dies. But as a complete cliche, we survive, and instead of dying, we get superpowers. The objective of Outriders (our group) was to explore the planet and find out if it was safe or not (it wasn’t).

After a chain of event, our main character gets injured and put in to sleep again. When we get awaken, we see that the planet became a very different place. In about 30 years, Enoch got transformed into a post-apocalyptic hell. So we set off in this new landscape, trying to survive while also trying to learn the secrets of the mysterious storm and our new abilities.

The story takes us to the different parts of the planet and overall I would say it offers an exciting adventure. However, the character development is non-existing. Often we don’t see the characters we meet during side missions. People who are part of our team, also can die very easily. On this subject, people die in-game…A LOT. To the point where it becomes a comedy.

With Outriders, producers tried to create a serious story with a pinch of dark humor. However, almost all of the dialogues in the game are beyond horrible. When I played this game with my friends, we laughed at almost every cinematic. So, I this might not be a complete negative.

In general, I found the game one step above average in respect to its world, since the world and the story offered by the game are slightly unique when compared to other science fiction stories. However, it should not be forgotten that it has some real weaknesses.

The Main Aspects Of The Game

In terms of the gameplay, Outriders really got me hooked. Even if the story doesn’t interest you, it’s really fun to crush your enemies with different ability combos. However, the game’s weapons don’t always feel right.

If you just concentrate on weapons, you won’t be able to enjoy this game that much. Weapons felt weak when compared to similar games of this kind. The sound design is also horrible. Most of the time, the sound become really muddy. Because the sound design was not well done. Sometimes your weapon will feel like a rocket, while at other times sounding like a peashooter. Putting this issue aside, the weapon designs in the game is not groundbreaking. Except for the legendries. Although the loot system makes up for this deficiency, I still think that this is an issue.

Although I played the starting area of the game with every class, my main was pyromancer. To summarize the classes; Devastator is the game’s close-range tank class, the Pyromancer is the mid-range class that mainly uses fire (duh). Technomancer uses tools like remote turrets and rockets while also being a long-range support. Finally, the trickster is a close-range assassin type of a class that slows enemies.

What Makes The Outriders Special?

So if the guns don’t feel right, what makes this game so good? The loot and the ability system.

First of all, the potential of the ability system in this game is vast. The abilities are fun to use, while having almost no cooldown. So in the end, Outriders gives its players endless action-packed battles. Almost every skill in the game can be combined with other abilities. So as a result, this translates into a very fluid gameplay.

The second aspect that makes gameplay fun is the perk system. The main purpose of the mods is to determine your play style. Outriders, unlike similar games, has a perk based customization rather than an ability based one. As you can see in the photo, there are 3 different tiers of mods. Mods get stronger according to their tier. However, depending on your build, a lower tier mod, might be better.

For example, tier 1 armor mods affect your abilities, while tier 2 mods have more general affects. tier 3 mods, on the other hand, offer both skill and general buffs. Although there are outliers, the weapon mods are a little simpler. When you go from tier 1 to tier 3, the mods increase their buff power or shorten the duration. So from a certain point, Outriders feels more like a Diablo game, rather than, let’s say Division.

So, you constantly acquire new mods and improve your build to defeat more difficult enemies. People who like customizations, like me, will love this system. Weapons and armor are generally fully customizable. However, there is no transmog system.

Each class also has a skill tree. However, this part often offers passive bonuses. However, the fact that you can customize this, at any time, with no cost, means that you can constantly change your build on the go.

The Gameplay

So let’s talk about the general gameplay of the game. Like Division, Outriders has a cover system. However, this aspect is completely different. While cover forms the basis of Division, in Outriders, it is a last resort mechanism.

In the game, you generally have to be aggressive. It is almost impossible to play while hiding behind a cover. Because all classes in the game get healed by damaging enemies. You constantly have to push the enemies and squeeze them. If you don’t, the game’s AI will do the same to you. In this regard, they can sometimes be a little too smart.

Here is a short video, if you wonder how the gameplay looks like:

The feel of the cover system is not very good. However as I said before, it does not need to be good, as it is a last resort mechanism. It almost feels like, developers intended this system to be used by the enemies, not the players.

All in all, Outriders is not a perfect game in terms of gameplay. However, it has a very robust customization system that I am ready to forgive its shortcomings. I honestly do not understand why no one made such a Diablo-like 3rd person shooter before. I hope we can see more of these types of games in the future.

The Endgame In Outriders

Considering that Outriders is not a live game, the endgame experience it offered, surprised me. Expeditions are the name of the endgame missions. These missions, which have a separate map, are the hardest things in the game. Of course, if you complete these difficult missions, you will be swimming in the loot.

In the normal game, there are 15 different tiers of difficulty tiers. Expeditions however, are also divided into 15 different tiers that are different from the base game. For example, if you reach tier 15 in the main game, you will start at tier 6 expedition.

These missions generally lack in the story department and are based on killing tons of enemies. To get the best rewards in missions, you have to race against the clock. Here, the build potential of your character really starts to shine. Because the difficulty levels of these missions are substantially higher. So you really have to min-max.

The only weak side of the endgame experience is that the game really has a pacing problem. It takes a long time to unlock mods for your armor and weapons. When you make it to the endgame, you will have at most 2/5 of these mods. So some players might get bored mid-game.

Overall I liked Outriders’ endgame experience. Those who like the game can level up all 4 classes and test them in these hard missions. So if you like the game, the replay ability aspect is there.

Outriders: Pros & Cons

So what can we say to summarize Outriders’ strengths and weaknesses?

The game is generally fun, but it also has many weak points. Outriders seems to be somewhere between an indie game and a AAA game. It can differentiate itself from its peers, however, there are also some annoying aspects.

The character creation screen remains the same as the demo version. So you don’t have many options to customize your character. Most of the faces are already ugly, this cuts down on your choices. So in the end, the player characters you see in the game are mostly identical.

The map structure looks like it came from a decade ago, and the transition between maps is really outdated. The Maps themselves also fail to highlight themselves artistically. There are standard places such as snowy mountains, forests and deserts. On the map, you can see the area you are currently in, however, you do not know the exact location. This caused me to lose my way a lot of times.

The story, as I have already mentioned, is very poor in terms of character development. Dialogues are really funny for a game that tries to be serious. It’s not horrible, but don’t expect too much from it.

Although the weapons do not feel that good, the game offers a fun gameplay as a result of the ability and mod combinations. The endgame experience is also good , but doing the same missions over and over again will of course bore the players after a certain point. The lack of different activities can be seen as a weakness.

Note that Outriders, is not a live game. It will not constantly receive updates like Division and Destiny. The producers said that if the game is successful, they can make some DLCs, but that’s about it. So this game has an ending. After you finish it, you have to switch to another game.

The Final Verdict

Let’s come to the most important question. Do Outriders deserve your money?

I paid $60 to play this game. I did everything the game had to offer on a single character, and it took an average of 50 hours. Did I have fun playing the game? Yes. So would I recommend other people to buy it at full price? No.

I can only advice someone to buy a fully priced $60 game, if it is a masterpiece. Let me tell you: Outriders is not a masterpiece. However, if you have an Xbox console, I would like to remind you that the game is on Xbox Game Pass. Assuming that you will finish the game in 1 month, it is definitely worth it that way.

Everyone else who is curious about the game, should wait for a sale. I can recommend the game when it gets at least a 50% discount. Also, I highly advice you to play with a full party. As a solo experience, you might get bored in the mid-game.

That is it, thanks for reading our review. If you have any questions regarding the game, you can ask them in the comments section down below.

The post Outriders Review: Is It Worth Your Money? appeared first on Esportimes.

When we first look at the series, we see a classic story. Our main character, the dragon hunter Davion, is a pompous hero. Our second main character is Princess Mirana, who was exiled from her homeland for a mistake she made. Throughout the series, we will mostly be with these two characters and events will develop around them. Here I would like to point out that although the name of the series is Dragon’s Blood, when we look at it as a whole, we see that the events mainly develop around Mirana. For now, let’s leave the characters aside and look at the Dota universe.

The Lore

First of all, the producers of the series really do have the details of the Dota universe nailed in this series. Games often lose a piece of their essence when they move into different mediums, such as TV shows or movies. This is not the case with Dragon’s Blood. When we look at the background of the story, the world and the small details, everything is made in accordance with the source material.

However, Dota lore, when compared to other similar fantasy worlds such as Warcraft or Warhammer, remains weak in terms of depth. So keep that in mind. This anime series was actually a good start to cover this weakness. I am delighted that it fits its source and expands it properly.

It also doesn’t matter if you’ve never played Dota before or if you don’t know about its universe. You can watch the show without any prior knowledge.

Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Art & Design

Dragon’s Blood uses a technique that combines 3D and 2D animation, which is quite popular in contemporary animes. Although Studio Mir was behind Legend of Korra, a show I loved very much, they disappointed me in Dragon’s Blood. While the big battle scenes, backgrounds, and designs of the main characters are very good, I found some aspects of the series really repulsive. This mixed style is used to save time and budget, however, when I see 3D animations alongside well-designed 2D characters, it just puts me out. Besides the detailed 2D drawings, 3D animation looks really bad. As for the music, Dragon’s Blood neither disappointed nor surprised me in that regard.

Now I will go into the spoiler territory to further criticize Dragon’s Blood.

Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Story Flow & Character Development

To be honest, I did not like the flow of the story. The main reason for this is that the show only consists of 8 episodes. Although there is a brief summary of the universe in the first episode, I would have liked more world building in general. Likewise, in the short time given to us, the development of characters other than Davion and Mirana was very underwhelming. The main villain in the story is Terrorblade, however, he only appears properly 2 times. Maybe he’ll have a bigger role in later seasons. I think it would have been better in the 1st season, if he just remained a hidden villain.

The connection between Selemene and Invoker, the two mysterious and grey characters of the series, became fully understood only in the last episodes. I have never liked this kind of last minute explanation style in any show. Period. It seemed even more absurd that this was done in an 8-part series. I think it would have had a more positive effect on the flow of the series if we learned most of the information much earlier.

Davion and Mirana are two characters that have experienced “some” character development in the series, however at the end of the series, this is not tied anywhere. As I said, this can be attributed to Dragon’s Blood being a short 8-episode series. There was also an elf named Fymryn, though at this point I think the show would have been fine without her. Although she is an important character in terms of connecting different parts of the story, I did not like her.

Dota: Dragon’s Blood: The Biggest Weakness

The end of the 1st season ends with a huge cliffhanger. Considering that even a medium-quality anime series today has 12 episodes in 1 season, it would have been absurd for an 8-episode series to end a story arc. However, a story that is cut in the middle may cause the audience to perceive the series in a bad manner, which may cause the 2nd season to not come out.

Final Words

In my opinion, Dragon’s Blood is not too bad or too good. It has some shortcomings, but those can be fixed in future seasons. When compared to the other popular video game based Netflix show Castlevania, Dragon’s Blood lacked a proper pay off. The art style was also a bit more mediocre. So there is that. However, I don’t think a series need to be perfect to be watchable. As an action-packed series set in a fantastic universe, Dota: Dragon’s Blood, succeeded in its mission and I cannot wait for the 2nd season (for a proper ending).

The post Dota: Dragon’s Blood: Is the Netflix Show Any Good? appeared first on Esportimes.