Recent reviews by Motivia

Ok, initially, I was going to give this a thumbs up, but seeing just how many microtransactions there are for a single-player game that I bought the high-end edition for, I don't think I can honestly support the game. There are plenty of single-player games that offer microtransactions, I realize, but this one is a total cash cow. From my understanding, you can’t even make a second character, which I wanted to do to try each class. I will not spend the money on microtransactions just because a single-player game is trying to milk me repeatedly. I'm not too fond of it because the first game was one of my all-time most-played console games.

After waiting for the full release after backing on Kickstarter, my first two and a half hours have been enjoyable. The game may not break any new ground, but it has things I like, such as a shared inventory that appears to be bottomless as I carry around a ton of gear. I have only done a few side quests, but they have been fair enough, yet not too hard or too easy. I plan on giving a better review tomorrow, but I am dead tired, and I promised a few friends that I would share my initial thoughts. So far, I give it a solid 8/10. I had no technical issues, and my FPS hovered well above similar games. The game seems stable and well-optimized, at least for my machine. My only wish was that I could play it on my Steam Deck, but that being said, I am enjoying it and highly recommend it for fans of cRPGs.

I don't have time to do a full initial review and only have an hour of playtime so far, but I haven't had any problems and it adds some nice twist to the survival/crafting genre. The only bad thing is that it came out after a particular "Pal" game with a unique twist on the genre.

While I have yet to get far into the game, I do recommend it to those who enjoy the genre. Now, the only question is, do you spend your time playing this or the Pal game? If you can decide your time, both are unique enough to be worth picking up if you can afford to do so.

I do like the ability to spec into any number of archetypes, as I prefer casters, and luckily for me, this game has multiple magic user trees. I am playing solo right now, but this is a game where I could see myself wanting to co-op with others. I usually am not big on multiplayer, but this game has an excellent chance to change my mind. I know they have put out a couple of hotfixes already, and I read that most early complaints were server-related. It is hard for a company to judge what kind of load to expect; this goes even more so for smaller studios, but when you see big AAA companies struggle, and you know they have the money and knowledge like a particular company, let's call "Snowstorm," just kidding I will not cloak the fact that I am talking about Blizzard have the same issues, it is hard to fault a newly released game, even more so when it is in early access.

I wish I had more time with a game tonight to do a deeper dive into it, but for the money, it is undoubtedly, even at this point, worth the asking price. If the developers keep up the excellent work and continue building upon what they already have playable, I can see good things ahead for Enshrouded.

Review update on 1/29/24 after another 20 hours of playtime:

I am now level 20, and while I have unlocked my third base, I still need to set it up. I ended up moving the first base once I had my second base set up due to poor placement on my part. I then moved that base to a very naturally protected area spot that has a ton of ore so I have nothing at that base really besides mining and refining. My second base, while not in a good spot to defend, I plan on moving later, but it is my production base; all that goes on there is production stuff.

I already know where I will place my next base as it has a lot of wood and ore. I have yet to set it up, as I took a lot of time moving stuff from my original base to the new base and moving things between the second base and the base that replaced my first.

I did spend some time on one of the sanctuaries getting some Pals that I wanted that I heard are good at mining, but mostly my time has been moving my first base after the second was established and setting that base back up.

I am still learning a lot and have avoided as many spoilers as possible because half the fun of this game is learning the ropes.

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Original Review from 1/21/24 after Initial couple hours of playtime.

I have yet to read many of the reviews, but the few I have were all good, and after buying the game, I see why. I love survival, crafting games, and adding to the mix having a bunch of cute little critters helping you do tasks is too fun. I have played ARK a fair bit, and this game already passes ARK in many areas. They are not strictly related but have the same general premise, build, and tame. I highly recommend the game, and my first two hours flew by. I had zero technical problems, and the game ran without frame drops, crashes, or clipping issues. It is one of the best EA games I have played in a while that already appears to be as well done as many fully released games. I will note that I played single-player only, so I can't speak of the game's multiplayer aspects.

My favorite class in games almost always is a magic user. This is a fun game in which you get to be a magic user within the organization called The Immortals. Your character is Jak, a young man who gets trusted into a war he wants no part of. So far, my first three and a half hours have been great. Even better, I didn't realize that Gina Torres was a voice actor, but as soon as her character showed up and I heard her, I was like, OMG, now this game has some great talent.

Overall, the game plays like a first-person shooter. Your choice in spells is almost like picking different weapons within a FPS. The concept works well, though the number of spells you get starts adding up to where you will find a few you favor. A talent tree focuses on improving spells from one of the three colors: red, green, blue, or RGB. Each color has a set of specialty spells that, as mentioned, you can improve on. Some of the improvements are via the talent tree. However, gear does play a part in enhancing your character.

The story so far is good, even if it is almost like a JRPG, in as much as you are a nobody that ends up being a chosen type. It works, however, for the game, and while the main character (your character, Jak) is a bit snarky, it doesn't get to the point that it is overplayed.

As I mentioned, I have enjoyed the game; it is very pretty graphics-wise, performance at least on the machine I am playing on, AMD Ryzen 7 5700 with 48GB RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti installed on an SSD is very stable. I had no overall crashes or bugs other than the very rare clipping. The main thing is that there haven't been any Crashes To the Desktop or such. The game is well-optimized.

The only real complaint I have about the game is that while it does a good job slowly handing out new spells at the start and explaining how to use them, it only partially explains a few tops. I was about 3 hours into the game before I realized that while you find a chest you can open, some containers have various yellow glow lights that are this game's version of a breakable box.

Loot seems to come pretty steady, and the crafting system, which I recall, is easy enough to figure out, although it is not explained in detail. Like I said, the game does break you slowly into more and more abilities, but sometimes I need some help.

The game has several puzzles, which I usually enjoy less. However, they are pretty good and easy to figure out for the most part. I think they are hard enough to challenge you but not to the point you want to rage quit.

Anyway, I highly recommend the game. I am only 3.5 hours in, but the game has proven to be one of the better games I have played lately. I give it a 9/10. It could be better, but for the price, it is very much worth playing.

I have yet to have a lot of time with this game, just over a half hour, yet it gives me good vibes. There are a few graphical errors here and there, but nothing major; for the price and quality of the game overall, it is only very, very minor and could be my machine. I will try it on another machine soon to see. Either way, I do recommend this game for its current price.

My 18 year old ask me to reinstall the game and in doing so I noticed that I had yet to review the game. We have at the time of this review over 320 hours play time on the PC, with nearly double that on the PS4. Funny thing is that we have never even completed the story campaign or played on the online portion. The vast majority of the time was just my daughter and I making tons and tons of mayhem. Well more me making the mayhem and her going on joy rides.

For years now she has asked me when GTVA 6 was coming out and she was so glad to hear that it was finally coming out in a couple more years. I don't care what people say I am glad for her that she will finally have a female anti-hero to play as. In the past we have always modded the game just so she could play as a female character. I tire of people saying a game is "woke" just because it has a female lead. Grow up and get with the current century is what I have to say and I am in my fifties so it isn't like I am a Millennial or Gen Z saying this. If you don't like the character being female, do the opposite of what we did and mod the character to a male.

Anyway, it is amazing how much fun this game is just driving around and sightseeing even after all these years the game still holds up as a decent looking game. Rockstar put heart and soul into the game and it shows.

By the way if you ever get a chance to meet Steven Ogg (voice of Trevor) in real life, do it. The dude is hundred kinds of funny and a cool dude all around.

I just completed what you can call the opening act. So far, it has been a blast. I did run into an issue where, for some reason, the wired controller I had hooked up kept dropping and trying to switch to the mouse. It is something on my end, and I was planning on mostly playing on my desktop with a keyboard and mouse anyway. I have yet to look, but I read that support for the Steam Deck is supposed to be on the way. I look forward to that as I spend more time on my deck than my desktop and prefer playing on a recliner.

Story wise I am very much enjoying the game. I personally think it is one of the better WH40K game stories in a while. The game isn't perfect, and the camera can be a bit finicky at times, but as far as launches go, I have to give it a solid 9.5/10 so far in my book. I look forward to seeing more of the game and while it appears that future DLC is planned for a couple of points next year, I so far intend to pickup the season pass after I play it a bit more just to make sure that I continue to feel the same way about it after a few more hours of playtime.

Major Props to Owlcat Games for a great release (at least in my book).

I played for about 90 minutes, and every moment of game time has been a pure joy. I am a big fan of the Steamworld games, though I have yet to put a lot of time into them on the PC; I played a lot on the console and have always loved the vibe. Steamworld Build continues in a proud tradition of being a fun game; while I'm not 100% sure what it wants to be, it really doesn't matter because the game oozes nothing but enjoyment and a relaxed play style. I had zero errors or problems in my first play session.

I know another Vampire Survivor clone right? While it does have a Vampire Survivor feel to it, it has enough mechanics to set itself apart. Hard to pass up for the Deck as it runs great and is lots of fun.