Recent reviews by Mr.Eso

Pretty on par with what Hi-Rez typically offers the gaming industry.

Resounding mediocrity.

Art Direction, Game Mechanics, UI, Sound, and fun-factor fall well below expectations. Even upon receiving a free key via the twitch drop mechanic, I somehow feel ripped off.

Hi-Rez has proven beyond any reasonable doubt that their studio does not have what it takes to create a product worth purchasing. Stay away.

Quick and Dirty mini-review:

The game starts off with a very steep learning curve. You will die a lot. You will die in embarrassing ways. You will die trying to figure out what that noise was. You will die to traps. You will die in PVP. You will get shot in the spine by your friend who was "just trying to help". You will die over and over and over again, until things start to come together. Then you will start to win. Then the game hits its stride.

I recommend you try this game with friends, watch a quick new player guide, and stick with it. I initially was f2p, but happily purchased the 'legendary' edition after just a few hours with this thing. I'm not typically one for the "Tarkov experience", but somehow this one hit just right.

It's certainly not perfect, but somehow it keeps me coming back for more.

Minor gripe: Had some very slight issues getting my ps4 control to work consistently. But with about 2 mins of research, it was easily resolved.

My computer isn't the greatest, and it still runs quite well, without sacrificing the look of the gorgeous terrain.

The game is super difficult for first-time souls gamers like myself, but i'm really having a blast. Made it past the first major boss with only a few issues, and have progressed quite steadily. The game is good about putting roadblocks in front of you that, while difficult, and frustrating, never quite feel insurmountable. Not yet at least. Will report back with updates as needed.

8.9/10 from a new souls player.

Some of the controls are a bit janky, and the combat is quite punishing, but otherwise the game is marvelous.

New World struggles from the same issues that have plagued games for the last 10 years.

Greed.

What we have here is a great framework for a really fun, and captivating experience. There's plenty to do, lots of interesting combat options, lots to grind (if that's your thing), and some cute concepts, meant to incentivize community building.

HOWEVER, despite the excellent framework, the GUTS of this thing, the moving parts, the nuts and bolts, the viscera, are rotten. It's painfully obvious that this game was pushed out in an unfinished state, with a fresh coat of paint slapped on top.

So instead of plowing forward and creating new content for their player base, the dev team has to spend every waking moment fixing all the stuff that should already be working. A great deal of perks, skills, etc... just flat out don't work, or are bugged to the point of rampant exploitation. Coupled with the dreaded 'spaghetti code' dilemma - every 'FIX' , seems to spawn 10 new, tangentially related problems.

Now that server transfers are available (for some, not all - still very buggy), I find myself on a mostly dead server, losing motivation to even log in.

PVP is woefully under-tested, and balance is a laughable concept.

There's a lot of potential for this game to become something more than it is - but at present, it's a barely average game, infested with bugs, and issues that prevent enjoyment.

Currently 5.5/10
Potential in a year? Closer to an 8/10 if things work as intended.

This game is unrelenting in its ability to spoil the player with meaningful choice.

It's incredibly deep - with such a wide diversity of build options, playstyles, and means of progression, that I have yet to fully wrap my head around it.

Players are required to respond to the ever-changing landscape, which often includes changing up previous strategies to account for your nosy neighbours, and their particular brand of hijinx.

I'm only 5 hours in, but I've managed to cause a right good ruckus with my Harrapan neighbours, necessitating a shift in civic and political doctrine. We went from quite friendly, with a great trade agreement, to at odds, when my particular religion caused one of their cities to convert to my culture, without my knowledge or say so - as a result, our relationship has become shaky at best - so i've shoved droves of chariots and warriors to the borders, in anticipation of the coming conflict. Luckily i had JUST finished building the Pyramid of Giza before this occurred, so I had enough resources to pivot to pumping out military units with abandon.

I'm very much looking forward to the next few turns - and will have to carefully manage my resources.

This game started off very slowly - then ramped up to, what has amounted to a panicked attempt to secure as many outposts on my borders as I could. I love the shift in gears - and I think it's a mark of a well built game.

So far I don't have any real gripes about the game, other than the heavy nature of the tooltips, and the shockingly high requirement for patiently reading each little tooltip. Not for the faint of heart, or someone looking for a quick romp.

8.5-9.0/10 at the moment. Will re-evaluate after more time.

I've been waiting 20 years for this, and i'm not disappointed.

To put it simply - this is an ambitious project that started with a massive stutter, and for me, ended in a pathetic whimper.

Bluehole has demonstrated time and again, their complete lack of competence in terms of creating a sustainable, functional, or even enjoyable product for their customers.

I will not be purchasing any other products that include Blue Hole involvement, and i urge you to do the same.

More of the same from Hi-Rez:

* Borrow an idea, or jump on a bandwagon
* Do a half-assed job creating the illusion of a unique experience
* Devise half-baked solutions to inconsequential issues
* Ignore your player base
* Essentially fumble around in the dark like Hellen Keller on a bad acid trip
* Seemingly pull ideas out of a hat, and implement them at all costs - despite every reason not to
* Wonder why your gaming ventures continue to fail in anything but their own mediocrity.

This is the game i've been waiting for.

I honestly can still remember the day that I first played the original Baldur's Gate. I made my character with the help of my uncle, who originally got me into DnD, and I never looked back. I played that game for longer than could reasonably be considered healthy.

After spending countless years, dabbling in competitive FPS, i found myself yearning for that old RPG sensation.

I played....numerous other similar games, [who shall remain unnamed], and was always left disappointed. They couldn't seem to capture that epic feel that i was looking for. They always fell short in one, or many areas.

Until a few days ago, when i caught a random video of POE2 on display, and i knew i had to try it.

The game captures everything that i want in an RPG and more. I'm barely 20 hours deep, and I'm already planning for future play throughs, and am generally just engrossed in the experience.

The voice acting, the animations (which are finally on the same level as the amazing isometric backgrounds), the story, the characters, the combat - i have yet to be disappointed.

I'm not saying it's a perfect game - but i am saying it's a fantastic one.

Do yourself a favour - check this out, but take your time, appreciate the entire experience - turn off the twitch streams, turn off your phone, and just kick your feet up and enjoy it.

What a fantastic experience so far! I'm a long time battletech fan, so it goes without saying that i had high expectations for this game. Thus far I have not been disappointed.

Pros:
* Combat - It's intuitive, high in risk/reward (and very punishing if you push the boundaries a bit too far), and fun.
* The music is absolutely top notch.
* user friendly UI - doesn't feel clunky or poorly optimized like many others. Things make sense, and they do what they should.
* Visuals are fantastic - the attention to detail like the little antenna on the back of the shadowhawk's head, the spotlights at night, the visceral weapon physics. it all comes together really nicely.
* The story is immediately engrossing - i found myself attached to the characters in the story, and making decisions not just to push the story forward, but to improve their QOL.
* Tons of variety - i sense replayability will be tremendous, given the vastness of the starmap and the ability to travel just about anywhere. There are 59 different mech variants to choose from, and you can customize each one completely to your liking. Don't like the stock loadout? No problem - add more armour to specific locations, give it jump jets, totally retrofit the weapons - the possibilities are damn near endless.
* Player choice - after a few 'tutorial' missions, the choice is yours how you want to proceed. You can be the greedy pirate-like mercenary company, scouring the periphery for easy marks. You can be the saviour of house Davion, returned from the gladiatorial pits of Solaris VII to fight for justice. You can do neither, and just look out for yourself and your crew, as you pledge your allegiance to any of the numerous major Inner Sphere Houses. I for one decided I wanted to pledge my sword to the 'feudal japan'-esque house Kurita - where honour, combat prowess, and loyalty stand above all else.

Cons:
* some individuals having black screen issues. Have been resolved, but never good on launch day.
* in battle controls need a bit of tightening up - i had a hard time trying to position my mech behind an enemy before initiating a close combat attack. Ended up shooting them instead.
* some better feedback RE: time (in days) to retrofit a mech would be nice. Maybe i'm missing something, but the reported '4 days' to swap some weapons quickly changed to 20+. I'm assuming there's some multiplier for numerous simultaneous jobs that i'm missing, but it wasn't immediately evident at the time. A small gripe, and probably user error, but still.


The final word:
* I'm approximately 10 missions deep and i'm absolutely having a blast thus far. The gripes i have about the controls, or the interface are very minor. If you enjoy turn based strategy with resource management, or are a fan of battlemech / mech combat in general, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you skipped over this one.

This is HBS's best work bar-none - and i'm looking forward to what the future has in store for these talented folks.