Recent reviews by Burn my dread

Cast out the devils and the angels will leave with them.

Tyranny feels like a response to the fact that most players choose to be good by only offering PCs to be shades of evil. This is the final conquest of a whole continent and you are brought in to arbitrate between the two factions with wildly different philosophies on how to take over then pick up the pieces after. If you are an RPG goody two shoes this leads to everything feeling bad even when its 'better', not in a bad way. Most of the games uniqueness lies in this much wider spectrum of evil and offers some of the widest array of outcomes outside of just ending slides I've seen in an RPG. The range of choice also feels like a hindrance when it clearly affected everything else about the game, from combat depth and variety to overall game length.

Combat can be most related to Pillars(because it pretty much is) but with a dumbed down magic system that is available to all party members in relation to their stat size. No real fights of note other than the sparing boss fights that encourage you to use the unique factional reputation spells while slowly widdling down their health.

The large variety of choice in immediate outcomes leads to each playthrough being unique but also locking you out of at least half of the games content per play through due to reputation and what factions even still exist. Loss of overall content is noticeable as the map has several sections where you will never visit one location per play through. Each playthrough clocking in around 15-20 hours where the first act(of 3) will largely play out the same.

Compaions also suffer from this immediate choice outcome as only the first 3 you run into are fleshed out past being a walking lore book about a unique faction. These 3 compaions have full questlines and endings dependent on player decisions throughout.

Bugs are also a huge problem in this game. Be ready to look up quest lines as even if a quest you are on isn't act limited on competition, many follow up quests are limited on when you can receive them. I also ran into an issue were a few quest items would despawn or never drop in the first place forcing me to reload or use console commands in dire cases.

Overall the game is a brilliant example of depth of choice and immediate effect but falls flat in all other aspects expected of a crpgs(likely because of the amount of focus on this depth) leading to a short crpg where it feels like too much happened when weighed against how little you really did.
I recommend for one playthrough where you look up the names of the paths before you play and follow a starting guide just to experience your impact but if you don't care for immediate outcome or being evil this game isnt for you.

Edios Montreal proves that they can still make great games even when limited to the action adventure genre and hog tied to a Marvel IP.

This ♥♥♥♥ rules, a sonic point and click adventure/visual novel mixed with the early 3d sonic games.

What a hot pile of garbage to be given the Splinter Cell name, no distinction between stealth and loud, only option is to kill not pacify and the game has mandatory detected states. The final mission is riddled with endless direct combat which the game is terrible at and NPCs conveniently know where to search to find you even if you have yet to be detected. I walked all the way to the next room with a fight and NPCs that hadn't seen me "searched" for me all the way to a room they had never been to and in theory have no reason to go to because its past them therefore has others watching it.

Even an small impact can cause ripples through out a town.

I WILL SAVE THIS MARRIAGE WITH OR WITHOUT YOU NOW GET ON THE BUTTON.

It was almost morning, waking up from the American Dream.

Have you ever been pinned down fighting for an objective your not sure if is needed for 2 hours just to have the game end via attrition? Just turn down the officers voice volume and turn up your favorite tunes and throw yourself into the fuster cluck that is modern combat situations where the only ones truly winning are the defense contractors who supplied both sides lowest bidder grade gear for an endless quagmire of conflicts.

Yakuza kiwami 2 has better game systems than 0, fights now happen on map making enviromental heat moves possible and showing what weapons will be on the ground before the fight has started. Fighting has also be some what dumbed down by the removal of having four styles and how fickle heat moves can be to activate. Combat is somewhat redeemed by greatly expanded heat move offerings, combos involving a lot more kicking and heat burst mode making you a walking tank. Boss fights on normal feel under tuned with some street bosses being harder than late game bosses. The Coliseum feels overturned at times especially whenever you can run into enemies with 6 health bars in the first tournament.

The new experience system means everything you do successfully in game gains experience including mini games, sub stories, combat and consumables. Food now matters and food combos are arguably one of the best ways to gain experience throughout the game. Most mini-games have been revamped to have more easy to understand systems and generally streamlined aside from the rigid ones like Mahjong. Majima Construction is top down waves of battle game with up to 11 party members that is a great minigame with a fun story but pays less than you're going to spend on it to stay relevant as you get further in the campaign. Money is much less abundant thereby far less necessary for most things. I had a million by the first time you leave Sotenbori and sixty million by the time I finished The Cabaret. I don't know what to say about the story other than it's good, if you like over the top action mixed with drama and little sprinkles of comedy which can be often found in the sub stories.