Recent reviews by Pippers

An awful waste of such amazing potential.

In short, this game should've been fantastic. Look towards Vermintide 2's finished state, take the good ideas from that game and effectively transfer and translate what you can into a version suitable for the 40k universe.

Simple enough, right? That's a solid base to work from after all.

Except somehow, this game is half baked. It's not done, even now 3 months after "launch".

The crafting system which was present in Vermintide 2 (or at least a semblance of a crafting system) is still missing in action.
The ability to select which missions you want to play is non existent, as well as the ability to play the game solo or privately with friends.
There's only 4 classes in the game whilst Vermintide 2 had 5 base classes and 15 sub-classes on launch (even if their talent trees weren't massively different, their abilities and weapon unlocks were different enough to encourage different styles of play and builds.)
There's no real endgame to speak of to work towards.
We still don't have any cross progression, nor are materials shared between classes meaning you have to grind everything for different characters you'd like to play (from scratch).


When the team's priorities were to:
Implement a cash shop.
Lie about being able to earn in-game currency (which was deleted promptly).
The removing of good features from Vermintide such as a random lootbox post mission (If you got a free reward that's great, but removing it is straight up taking away a benefit for no real reason).
Promise to offer a rich and detailed story which in the "finished product" is practically non-exsistant.

They're trying to add emotes which only work in the lobby now as well, and we still are missing so much core content.

We still don't have a finished game.

I take ten years to find a safe way to throw my servants out and get clobbered so hard my health bar disappears in two seconds as a punishment.

10/10 I enjoy every time.

Ever wanted to become "the bullet hell"? Well that's basically what this game is and it's a satisfying enough loop for me.
Walk around, level up, get new items, make powerful new evolved forms of weapons (with the right upgrades) and see if you can last the full 30 minutes in each level.
Don't worry about casting or doing anything, the game does it for you! Just walk around and try not to get cornered. Very simple but honestly very fun! A great game to play now and then for when you want to feel powerful, or watch something on the side at the same time.

I run fast and click on people, yippee!

It took me ten years to find the answers to something...

I forgot
about it in two seconds...

That's about iiiiiiiit!

The Leshy walked on earthly mother,
Guided by their heavenly fathers,
Drawn along by sister moon,
And the secrets of the stars.


...Go take the time to play this game, you won't regret it.

Right now I sadly have to not recommend this DLC, as I don't feel it's in a very good state at the moment.

The difficulty spike from the base game and the difficulty found within the DLC is a massive leap, and I found it rather jarring and shocking as levels that I would play through casually to have a good time have suddenly become nightmares in terms of difficulty and ramping up with massive amounts of otherwise unneeded pressure.

The second level of the Arctic Cruise chapter features a segment wherein you need to respond to different RNG tasks whilst on a timer, trying to balance the workload and keep the Captain calm whilst succeeding where you can. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that tasks can pop up in any location, near or far, at random. That in itself wouldn't be so bad if the navigation system the game provides you worked well either, as currently the arrows that guide you towards the nearest appropriate task have a tendency to lead you either in circles or to the incorrect locations. One particular incident had the arrows lead me back and forth through the same door repeatedly next to the Captains room to no avail, so I had no idea how to get to my target.

Then there's the Death Wish challenges, which whilst I understand are meant to challenge experienced players, I feel like they shouldn't be mandatory to be passed in order to experience the new story DLC chapter, as the difficulty alone in those are extremely hard and quite frankly frustrating. I understand more experienced players may fair better than myself, but all I've wanted to do is experience the new story content and perhaps tackle the challenges when I feel more confident later, I shouldn't have to repeatedly try and force my way through them just to get to the story.

In any case, right now I sadly cannot bring myself to recommend this DLC as excited as I am for it, as unfortunately I have had a rather saddening and frustrating experience with it.

Ever wanted to feel like a musical samurai?
Now's the time my friend, this game is a must have if you've got VR.

This game is an absolute treat to play!
It's effectively a love letter to the gamecube era style of platformers, and features a lot of elements from that time.
It even has the little dedicated platforming level sections like Super Mario Sunshine had!
The controls feel tight and very comfortable to use, so again if you're used to the Mario style of platforming you'll feel right at home here.
My only real complaint about the controls is sometimes they can feel a little bit wonky on tight ropes, as jumping off of them or trying to get extra height can sometimes lead to your demise since Hat Girl doesn't seem to stick to them as much as Mario does in Sunshine or Galaxy.
Other than that, this game is amazing and well worth the wait! If you love those older styles of platformers you're in for a fun experience with a gorgeous soundtrack that's a delight for the ears.

As someone who loves the Deus Ex series, Mankind Divided is an unfortunate position.

To keep things short and to the point here's a quick summary: if you enjoyed Human Revolution's gameplay you'll be glad to know that the system and it's controls have been honed and refined. Slipping in and out of cover is fluid and easier in comparison to Human Revolution, and the augment system in place is still generally the same yet with new more experimental augs available for play. However, the game itself seems to be only the first quarter of an actual game, the story doesn't really go anywhere or do terribly much and the ending actually comes out of nowhere abruptly, just as it feels like the action is finally kicking off.

Now here comes a slightly more detailed analysis, but still quick and to the point.

Non-lethal options are expanded and rewarded, with some of the new experiemental augs offering Non-Lethal variants. Ammo types are expanded upon with the potential for electric stun rounds for shotguns and pistols, opening new ways of handling tasks by shocking cameras out for peroids of time. As mentioned, the cover system is refined from Human Revolution, allowing for fluidity when moving in and out of cover quickly.

However, despite the actual core gameplay being fun and enjoyable, the main problem with the game is short length and general unresolved nature of the plot. Deus Ex is generally about conspiracy after conspiracy and just as the game seems to be leading you to take down one character who appears to be a pawn of greater forces at hand, the game ends. That's it. The first boss fight I encountered in the game was also the last, and I was shocked to find I was at the end of the game, whereas it felt like it was only the end of the first act.

The abrupt ending of the game was a shock and a huge disappointment, not having the length or general flowing story arc of Human Revolution. It was especially a problem when 80% of the game is spent within the hub city of Prague, a small area with not very much going on in it other than sidequests that involve you travelling from one corner to interact with one thing, then to the other side of Prague to hand it in. Ultimately the reason I choose to not recommend the game is largely down to the short length, and short plot line length. I cannot emphasize enough that it really does feel like playing the first quarter of a larger story.

The characters never really stood out in the story terribly well either, and Jensen feels like he's thrown into a world with characters who should be important named individuals, but they don't end up doing anything terribly impactful or memorable at all. The hacker collective seems to want Jensen to side with him, but it never feels like they offer him any real tangible reason to actually believe or trust them at all, just promises whilst handwaving any real attempts for him to understand who he's actually dealing with.

I've also found that apparently some of the characters whom seemingly have an established relationship with Jensen; yet no context to who they are or where they is provided about them in game, are in fact characters from a Deus Ex book that acts as a sort of prelude to the game. Not having this information or any real context in game hurts it quite a bit, as characters who are seemingly new to the player are already established in the world but never really explained unless you'd read the book beforehand.

The game deals with the whole "anti- aug" matter terribly unconvincingly. It really takes you out of the game when the narritive is pushing for segregation between the Augmented and the Non-Augmented. They try to treat the Augmented as a "race" when they aren't, they're humans like everyone else just with some metal parts. It really broke my immersion, as people would not realistically jump to these dividing lines and treat people in such a way, with the technology they have it wouldn't be hard to trace what caused the Aug incident originally and ensure that it doesn't happen again, not end up with Aug ghettos and aug "racism" somehow.

Ultimately, Deus Ex Mankind Divided feels like the beginning of a Deus Ex game, the first quarter of one chopped up and sold as a full product and lacking in narritive areas, and as such I cannot recommend a purchase for the price it is offered at.