Recent reviews by Gweenie

For a few years now I've wanted a game with the spirit and vibe of Diablo 1, a game from an era of Dungeon Crawlers where the journey was just trying to survive to your goal and not gremlining absolutely everything that isn't tied down to sell, break down or re-enchant into something else.

This game is that spirit in the form of a game in 2025, it is a dungeon crawler but its not a loot hoarding sim as most gear you find will be worthless and probably best to drop while there are things you can find that can convert that loot into something useful you are relying on a similar RNG system Diablo 1 had.

The RNG is also a lot like Diablo 1's, brutal but the dev is tweaking this to be on the fairer side of things as at launch the game had the same issue as Diablo 1, you can have a run where you see almost no potions or a run where your slots are just potions.

Another thing I like that this game has done rather than just being purely Diablo 1 is some minor quality of life improvements plus additions that do not take away from the game such as abilities for non-mage classes that still also dip into your mana pools such as Parrying with shields, reflecting, Piercing arrow with bows and crossbows which as more depth than just "Hold left-click" and if you chose melee you will be using Parrying heavily to survive.

The quality of life things the game added as well is if you are walking to another area but there is a door between you and the area you will auto-open it upon attempting to walk through it, which isn't crazy on the surface but I've yet to play a dungeon crawler with this plus if you hold left click and mouse over items you can just keep holding left click to pick up each item without releasing. Every little bit helps without making the game tediously annoying.

In the game's current state I highly recommend it, I've yet to run into any glitches minus being hit through walls if near a door but that might be due to the nature of the game's Isometrical nature but I must point out again this game is brutal but it does get easier after the first few floors if you build decently.

Really fun game so far, it's a very straight-forward game but mechanically complex in other areas.

Your objective is burn cursed objects with the number varying from 4-7 depending on difficulty but complexity comes from some factors like difference character having a unique ability that brings their own thing to the table, burning an object rolls a random effect shifts your initial plans and having main ghosts and sub ghosts.

So far the game is quite promising and can't wait to see how it goes from here.

What a flip flop and disappointment, game is really fun and enjoyable and played it since launch on and off but the amount of issues the game had increased the more and more you played it.

- Getting stuck in terrain
- Guns just forgetting you loaded them so you had to re-reload that reload
- Game blames a random entity on the map for your death at random
- Shooting down dropships doesn't kill what it lands on 99% of the time
- Dying with resources can cause it to clip into the ground or just straight up disappear

All the while this is happening, they keep pumping out warbond passes all too quickly making everything feel "Buy this hot new things" while the game still has so so many issues then the recent issue that many unhappy about, enforcing PSN account usage post launch what a way to further cause grievances and especially post launch.

I would refund this if a overly generous friend didn't gift it to me and I enjoyed the game in its early days and wanted to give the benefit of the doubt but hardly anything has changed since that launch and the same olds are still same olds.

Update as of 6/5/24: They are retracting their stance with PSN enforcement so those who got locked out of the game and/or refuse to use a PSN account can now play again but I am maintain my negative review for my other grievances of the game which I long for fixing.

Update as of 19/12/24: Been watching this game for months to see if they improved and they did by fixing a lot of the balancing issues but it turns out its good will in one hand and a lot of testing it in the other, they squeezed in Stratagems in some of the Warbonds and now squeezing weapons into Superstore FOMO shop for massively increased price with it only being part 1 of 2 making it just under 4000 super credits or 40USD if you are in that country.

Absolute greed, slowly worsening P2W and oh "Just grind the credits" It took me passively one month to get enough for one Warbond and I care enough about my own sanity to go out of my way to grind it I rather not.

Update as of 20/12/24: They addressed it by possibly reducing Part 1's price or not repeating it and making Part 2 (Which if leaks are true was going to be more on the line of pay to advantage/win) free, glad to see this change and not a step to a worrying road. Will rewrite this and change the review if things stay this way.

Initially I was keen for this game as day one it had quite a bit going for it and a lot of interesting concepts, unfortunately as time went on a chunk of ghosts that exists and function the game but have nothing distinct about them compared to other ghosts continue to be so.

Game started with Abandoned House and Cyclone Street, both good and interesting starters, later they added more onto Abandoned House but you realise that its half baked as the ghost will only ever touch the landing and one hallway of that new area albeit extremely glitchy as it will interact between these areas and the floors below, the rest ignored like it doesn't exist not just to the ghost but even the games objectives (Aka no objectives will touch these areas).

Next they added Hospital map, was interesting and the easter eggs and map based interactives are fun, it is a good map. Afterwards they added Kurosawa, also a good map and along with this map they added new scares to existing ones but this map is the first to have two fixed additional objectives locked to it making it have less random elements, while Cyclone and Hospital had only one locked additional objective.

After Kurosawa they added new map that was hinted at shortly after Kurosawa's release called Bedlam Asylum, once added it became one of the most unoptimised maps in the game to the point it was quite frequent to be unable to play, its fine though, Early access and they addressed it quite quickly but also reintroduced another bug they fixed initially that caused people to just not be able to load in sometimes when starting and also one other issue they added intentionally which deletes any items you bring in if you quit which is sometimes the only way to replay with your friends if they bugged out given the game's state.

With this new map, all additionals are fixed meaning it has less randomness to it making it very samey, a very overly silly puzzle that requires you to use the newly added Stopwatch to check the time to cross a room correctly but even if you crossed it once, you have to cross it correctly or you just die. Issue is this timer is constant and one of the five puzzle patterns is a no go pattern meaning you have to wait, waiting in a game where once hunts begin, they keep happen with also instant back to back hunts being a thing.

They added new items over time such as the stopwatch which exists only for one map, a sledgehammer that is only useful for one random objective which I've yet to see and its not implied or told what map even get the objective, Salt that is meant to do something to do with stopping or slowing a ghost in hunts but doesn't nor did they explain properly what it does.

Now for the ghosts themselves, most of them have traits kinda like Phasmophobia did to differentiate them beyond "Heres three evidence things you only can identify them", issue is most of the ghosts are just placeholders with only a unique name to them and specific evidence tied to them but the game is now in 1.0... and they still are only placeholders...

Another issue with the ghosts is this game hunt mechanically is the same as Phasmophobia and Ghost Exile, you either prevent a hunt by what means you have in the first place or you hide but you can't hide and you only get two crosses to end the hunt early and some maps have dead ends with nowhere to kite around a ghost and some ghosts are just fast so no matter what you do without a cross someone is going to perish. On top of this, ghosts can hear you but only some of them and its not specified which ones do or not.

But before ending this of as mentioned before this game came out into 1.0, after their previous version being 0.5.2 which is worrying, 1.0 added one new map and thats kinda it? With the map saying a new one is on the way but this game used to have frequent updates adding bits and pieces here and there but since Bedlam first dropped it became super quiet it with updates being rare and given the devs previous history it seems like if this last map does come out the game will just be in a state of "Heres all this stuff but we won't flesh out, fix or finish what is in it from this point forward" feel about it.

To say I am disappointed with another possible Phasmo contender just taking its ball half away across the court then just giving up is sad to see.

Update as of 28/09/2023
Game is in a lot better of a direction than previously, the different tiers of tools are refreshing to me especially going from stuff that barely does its job to the tools you are familiar with and then to the tools that just make you feel like a ghost hunting pro, its also nice that getting money in the game is not as much as an issue before making it only take a couple of missions to get what you lost back if you died enough to have nothing left versus 10+ runs if you don't die.

Previous Review 4/6/2023:
The game still feels very stagnant compared to those that have came out afterwards and its strange, the game used to have quite a bit going for it but it feels like every update takes longer and longer with very little headway but the upcoming one looks promising and will readjust this review in reflection of that.

The biggest thing I've been keen for was Horror 2.0 but that feels more and more distance in time.

Original review from before:
I used to love playing this game and it reignited my interests in the paranormal but because of new information that came out about what is happening on the Discord and behind the scenes I cannot wholeheartly support the game nor its devs as they are racist, deleting and silencing any and all information about this despite proof showing it from a variety of sources this is just sad and disgusting.

Updated: They have banned the culprit in question now but the fact that this has occurred since Feb, the person in question back then was removed then readded with all their permissions as well as defending him despite real world laws about what occurred is still a no-no from me.

Update 2: I am happier with the much more proper response from the Original and lead developer and it is disappointing that its finally properly addressed and my review will change in the future as long as they don't repeat, I hope.

It was only a matter of time for a very small indie team to bring back a classic and it's even right down to the sounds as well hearing the revolver sounds is just a chefs kiss, I am so glad I came across this.

The Good:
- Superior combat system to Oblivion
- New abilities: Dragon shouts, Sprinting, Cooking and Blacksmithing
- Overhaul of older abilities: Enchanting, Perks, Alchemy
- More enemy variants and more enemy varieties such as massive giants and dragons
- Level scaling expanded: Instead of 1-25 like Oblivion its now 1-81 and some enemies don't scale.
- Humanoids no longer look like walking potatoes
- Leveling is influenced by all skills

The Bad:
- The world feels less whimsical compare to Morrowind and in some degrees Oblivion.
- Blacksmithing takes away from the loot you find because what you make it most likely better.
- Enchanting is now overpowered once again worse then what Morrowind had and takes away from uniques like Daedric artifacts.
- Perks: Not all perks are bad but in Oblivion your weapon and armour skill increase the effectiveness of the area it covered, in Skyrim it just unlocks higher perks meaning if you max One-Handed you gain no benefit until you put perk points into it.
- The graphics are good for its time but have become quite dated compare to Oblivion world graphics but that's just my opinion on that
- Spellcrafting is gone.
- Some skill trees in Oblivion have been merged with each other such as Blunts and Blades from Oblivion are now One-Hand and Two-hand now.
- Some skill trees were gutted such as Acrobatics and Athletics
- Attributes such as Strength, Speed etc are now merged or gutted and turned into Health, Magicka or Stamina now.
- Preset classes are gone meaning all your skills are now just base 15 at the start of the game.

Special Edition exclusive:
This version comes with engine optimisations and better graphics and shaders that make the game look nicer then its original version while the better graphics aren't what matters to everyone the optimisations are worth it especially if you intend to mod this

Yes I may have given more negatives then positives but these are merely my opinion from having played Morrowind and Oblivion but I still highly recommend Skyrim Special Edition, even more so if you mod it. If your computer isn't good enough for this version I recommend the original version, look through the forums for links to the older version and its dlc for it.

When your beta is a downgrade from alpha
Positives:
- Ability to fast travel between flight masters and resurrection points
- More reasons to explore named locations
- More abilities for classes
- Game looks slightly better graphically
- Game is more optimised and smoothier then the Alpha
- Slightly better incentive to wander the world but not as rewarding
- The developer(s) are actively bug fixing issues which is nice to see
Negatives:
- You no longer level traditionally like the Alpha, you now only gain levels from artifacts but the levels do nothing but the artifacts give you a meagerly 5% in power in a non-combat stat based on the item's stat
- Everything you find in a zone that is Special items or Gear is locked to the zone you found it, feeling very powerful in one zone? Big F to all of that when you enter another because your back to square one unless your willing to grind for very, very low drop chance "+" gear that can be used in adjacent zones but nowhere else
- If you are unlucky enough to spawn in some zones, the first town you find will be unavailable until you kill a specific thing far away from that town to make it available
- Mod scaling is bad, you 90% of the time will ignore everything and find White tiered named areas to progress your power because killing enemies are only worth it for a bit of money and even then you might as well ignore them.
- World Generation is very odd, you can generate with Structures that require a specific Special item to open but the game has a chance of not generating the special item in that zone that you need to open it. In my first zone I had three towers that required Divine Harp but never spawned with one in that zone.
- Npcs in towns feel less routined, they seem to wander aimlessly compared to Alpha but the npcs outside of town seem identical. On top of that, Rumour icons that floated above their heads to give you quest leads are gone so you have to interact with all of them to find your way if any of them have anything to tell you.
- Lore mechanic: There a mechanic where you learn lore from npcs or structures around the zone that increase your lore with a specific faction by 10% but doesn't seem to change anything gameplay wise which seems very odd.
- Creature enemies: Most enemies are fairly balanced but flying enemies such as Bats, bloomlings are very annoying and can be impossible to hit leading to your death in most cases.

Nitpicks/Suggestions:
- Being able to know what food goes to what without having to pull a guide would be nice even if you had to identify them first.
- Weather system would also be nice rather them the weather changing with the zone itself
- Music and sounds: Some sounds and songs seem to very obnoxiously louder then others
- Hud size: Be nice to customise or resize hud elements such as the mini map
- Bring back the Skill tree/XP Progression, was more interesting and better to look forward to as you felt your character become stronger natural while now its just get gear of yellow quality and your done.

Six years... six years and your game has downgraded more then it has upgraded

The Good:
- Superior combat system to Oblivion
- New abilities: Dragon shouts, Sprinting, Cooking and Blacksmithing
- Overhaul of older abilities: Enchanting, Perks, Alchemy
- More enemy variants and more enemy varieties such as massive giants and dragons
- Level scaling expanded: Instead of 1-25 like Oblivion its now 1-81 and some enemies don't scale.
- Humanoids no longer look like walking potatoes
- Leveling is influenced by all skills

The Bad:
- The world feels less whimsical compare to Morrowind and in some degrees Oblivion.
- Blacksmithing takes away from the loot you find because what you make it most likely better.
- Enchanting is now overpowered once again worse then what Morrowind had and takes away from uniques like Daedric artifacts.
- Perks: Not all perks are bad but in Oblivion your weapon and armour skill increase the effectiveness of the area it covered, in Skyrim it just unlocks higher perks meaning if you max One-Handed you gain no benefit until you put perk points into it.
- The graphics are good for its time but have become quite dated compare to Oblivion world graphics but that's just my opinion on that
- Spellcrafting is gone.
- Some skill trees in Oblivion have been merged with each other such as Blunts and Blades from Oblivion are now One-Hand and Two-hand now.
- Some skill trees were gutted such as Acrobatics and Athletics
- Attributes such as Strength, Speed etc are now merged or gutted and turned into Health, Magicka or Stamina now.
- Preset classes are gone meaning all your skills are now just base 15 at the start of the game.

Yes I may have given more negatives then positives but these are merely my opinion from having played Morrowind and Oblivion but I still highly recommend Skyrim, even more so if you mod it. If your computer is good enough I recommend more getting Special edition as it comes with better graphics (even if slight) and some much needed Engine optimisations that makes the game far more stable then this version