Recent reviews by Cat

[Update regarding voices] The voices were recast because Victor Ireland was asking for too much royalty in exchange for the English vocals according to the discussion boards and google searching. It was apparently cheaper for them to just redub everything, and the redub is just "ok", it isn't special or great, just mediocre at best. My original review and verdict remains, but I felt this needed to be called out.



The good:
* Same Story / Script - In general, but there are slight changes to remove Vic's embellished text such as "half naked girls" that Nall references on the boat having "half naked" removed.
* Same cutscenes, triggering in the original places (more on this in "the bad").
* Same battle system, etc.
* Game has been rebalanced with most of Working Designs stat changes having been reverted back to their original values. This means less grinding to level up and an overall easier game.

The bad:
* Almost everything not mentioned in good? Very little work appears to have gone into this outside of AI upscaling and some slight improvements to the pixellated backgrounds.

* Unskippable intro videos for all the developers/publishers just to get to a menu launcher, only to have it close and open the version of the game you want to play - with the same unskippable intro videos you just saw. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell, did this get play tested?

* Voice Actors replaced, Nall is no longer annoying. Bring back annoying Nall. At least let the "Classic" mode use the original voices. Also, Luna's voice actress doesn't always sing on key.

* Animated cutscenes have been upscaled with AI, they are not faithful recreations and generally look bad on widescreen monitors. While that isn't always the case as some of them look fantastic, just look at the intro video to Lunar: SSSC or the scene where Alex plays his ocarina behind Luna at the beginning of the game. In general, the original stutters and framerate issues seen in the original PS1 game are still there. The intro looks similar to the HQ4X Pixel Smoothing you'd find in emulators and is very very noticeable.

* The MENU. Oh dear god the menu. Such decent looking font text, to be ruined when you try to read your character stats / level with a clash in different styles. The original was similar, but not THIS bad.

* SCREEN BLUR!? Why the hell does there need to be additional blur added to the game? When moving around, I can't stop seeing it in the top and bottom of the screens.


Verdict:
The game isn't so much a "remaster" as it as a "polished" version. It's no Suikoden I & II Remaster in terms of quality. Don't buy it at full price, it isn't worth it. Play the original unless you don't have access to it. Wait for a decent sale if you really want to play.

I'll update this review as I continue to slowly play through it and compare it to the original.

This game was fun for what it was, but very annoying that progress is per-individual so it makes playing with friends less impactful. It also turned into a cash grab, which is evident just by looking at the DLC. The devs are copying Bandai's method of adding as much content as possible as DLC, and only selling a basic/core experience.

Do not recommend. What started as an "inspired by Stardew Valley" game has turned into a nightmare. Lots of bad decisions by the dev without listening to the community, spiraling into double downing on those bad decisions things.

First off, ♥♥♥♥ Sony.

Game is fun, but supremely repetitive. It's also a ♥♥♥♥♥ to play as a new player, as the tutorial will only teach you the basics about the bugs only and then expect you to automatically know the rest for the planets you dive on. Imagine my surprise when I had to learn how to destroy fuel silos from google searching because the game doesn't really tell you ♥♥♥♥. Sure, it tells you that you have a new strategem, but it never once tells you about anything automoton related.

Tasks are based on the planet, so depending on the planet, expect to do the same things over, and over, and over, and over. Automotons are extremely boring, and there's only so much bug squishing I can take. It's fun for quick bursts to kill a little time where you don't have to think, but not worth playing for long sessions.

Overall, it's an average game. Not terrible, but not great either. Fun to kill a little time, but that's about it.

Also, ♥♥♥♥ Sony. Keeping this a negative review until the game is open for all to play again.

Anti-Cheat software required that has kernel level access. In a non-competitive, strictly social game that doesn't really have cheats?

This is to stop custom clients, which add functionality needed by disabled people, and for QOL improvements that the VRC staff refuse to add to the client. Such as anti-crasher support.

So what does this mean long-term? Everyone is now subjected to the same crashers, et al. Just because the VRC team will not and cannot implement what the community truly wants - a safer, inclusive, welcoming experience with great functionality.

Because of this move, I will not be installing VRC again until this is reversed. I don't play competitive games because I don't like them, and because they implement kernel level software. Why would I allow this one to do the same? If they don't want me to play, then I won't play. That's all it takes.

- Disgruntled former VRC+ Supporter

Dying Light 2 tries to capitalize on the fanbase it built from the first game. It features a system similar to what is done in the first game; leveling both agility and combat independently. What it does differently this time is forced progression locked behind inhibitors that allow you to spend your points on more advanced techniques. The world is decently sized and you can get around pretty quickly the more you level up. The concept of the game is amazing - Several years after the first game, the GRE attempt to make a new virus and it gets out into the world, effectively making things worse than the first virus.

However, it's overall game design is where it suffers most. The intro missions teach you that camps will happily turn off their UV lights to guests and help to build dramatic tension between the different camps. This isn't the case in the actual game, and leads to a huge flaw: Cheeseability. The crafting system is designed in a way that requires you to kill volatiles, runners, and other special zombies to collect "trophies", which are then used to level things up. Focus on knives and you're practically unstoppable very very early in.

The cheese: Run around, get "chase level" built up, go back to safe zones that have UV everywhere. Stay just outside of the UV light and chuck knives at everything. As you level up knives, 1-2 knives will kill almost every zombie while a 2 knives will kill volatiles in chase. If you take damage or are low on immunity, run into the UV light and recharge / bandage, then run back out into the danger zone and chuck more knives. At level 3, you'll get one volatile to show up. At level 4, you'll get 4-5 volatiles showing up. You can say "Well then don't play like that!", but it doesn't excuse the fact that the design is flawed. Especially when you can do this immediately after completing the tutorial mission. This allowed me to max all crafting recipes out very early on and have a surplus of combat points to spend. Essentially making the rest of the game a piece of cake.

The story is setup decently, but I experienced so many game breaking bugs that detracted from the experience. From simply accepting a quest at the start which corrupts your save, to enemies glitching through doors/walls when they shouldn't be able too, it's just a buggy buggy mess.

The real time for the game to shine was in co-op, but it was lackluster at best. Unlike the first game, where drop in / drop out works like a charm, this game simply doesn't work for co-op even when you're on the same network. I've got a bit of an advanced setup in that I'm blessed to have 10gbps throughout my home and frequently encountered numerous lag spikes, game drops, and other weird activity during co-op gameplay. It was so bad each time these issues were encountered, we'd both have to exit the game entirely and relaunch just to rejoin each other - all while in the same local area network.

The game was clearly rushed. By a long shot. Is it Cyberpunk 2077 launch bad? Not quite, but it's very close. The only difference I would say is that the company didn't attempt to over-hype this games release. The night time in Dying Light 1 was almost always dangerous, even at higher levels. In Dying Light 2, the night time is a joke with "immunity" being the only thing you're fighting. So instead of worrying about volatiles and other dangers, you're more focused on beating a timer. This does not make for good gameplay.

Did I enjoy what I could experience? Yes. Would I pay full price for what I experienced? No.

Wait a year for this game to go down and price and for the developers to properly fix it before purchasing it. The time I wasted on troubleshooting and exiting/restarting just to play the game was absolutely way too much.

Do yourself a favor and play more of Dying Light 1. That game was an absolute masterpiece.

Absolutely fantastic spoops game. Needs more content, but it's great what one developer has been able to make. VR is the only good way to play due to the immersion.

this is just for steam points, I hate valve

I found my long lost family with this game. It will always be a part of me.

Game is extremely broken, developers are NOT doing anymore patching outside of DLC, and show no interest in helping the community. All posts regarding the game end up with "Can't fix, code locked" or similar. This is inexcusable and and I'll be filing my request with Steam for a refund.