Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
I earned myself a Vermintide steam key after winning a review contest for a local gaming community with my written work on the classic grand strategy of Rome: Total War. I played Vermintide for the first time in the winter break of 2017, thinking that it will offer a few hours of good fun with friends over the holidays.
This game changed my life. To say that the developers at Fatshark have poured their souls into this title would be an understatement. For me it rightfully has a place in the hall of timeless gems such as Quake, Thief: The Dark Project or SOMA. It has not only provided me with great value for my time and a sense of accomplishment as I learned its various facets and overcome all of its challenges, but at a human level it has allowed me to connect with people who have become some of my best friends. For this alone I could offer nothing but praise to this game.
– Real player with 1727.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy First-Person Games.
WHAT THIS GAME IS:
Left 4 Warhammer.
A hectic fast paced hack and slash action game intended to be played co-op with friends. You play one of five characters each with slightly different play styles and each with a variety of possible weapon choices unique to them. You play through missions with simple objectives and recurring crescendo events against a horde of rat men, finding supplies on the way. You get a random piece of loot after each mission. Weapons can be upgraded/broken down/crafted with the Shrine and Anvil in the inn lobby.
– Real player with 883.3 hrs in game
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
I’ve stumbled upon this game back when it was in the beta times from 2018 while watching a twitch streamer try it out and at that time I would never even have guessed that it had this much to offer and how much it means to me now.
From a game that was originally meant to be played for approx. 80-100 hours, this game has more creativity, beauty, lore, depth, personality, care and charm than any other live service games I’ve seen over the past years. It is so much more than meets the eye at first glance, this honestly is a piece of art hidden in plain sight, and all it needs.. is your attention towards it. The time you can spend with it is already insane and while you are getting used to it’s flow of mechanics such as mastering a high skill ceiling combat, movesets, movement, item management, becoming a team player, taking in the enviroment and what’s around you is going to test your patience. But that’s a good thing. Learning is afterall more.. effective and rewarding that way. Times when you turn philosophical and ask “why is this the way it is?" , “what’s the reason behind this?" , “what is happening exactly?" becomes more frequent. That of course, is if you are curious enough. Once you start going down the rabbit hole of exploring and unraveling the many secrets, depth and insane detailing of the game you start to realise that this is a psychological mental trip with details so tiny, that some may never even be mentioned.
– Real player with 1495.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy First-Person Games.
Great coop-focused game that’s set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe.
But even for people who’re complete strangers to this world it’s a satisfying game to play.
If you’re in for some tense firstperson hack & slash action, while at the same time you develop your character(s) and make them entirely fitting your playstyle(s), then this game is definitely for you.
Thanks to the addition of the Chaos Wastes mode, which packs another 40 Gigs (?) of action in an entirely different gamemode, it’s pretty much two games in one.
– Real player with 713.6 hrs in game
Grim Dawn
This is one of the best Action RPGs ever made.
You will not regret buying this, especially on discount which occurs pretty often.
The developer, Crate entertainment, supports this game even now, even when everyone thought the game reached its pinnacle of updates and polishing, there was a patch with tons of pages of fixes & changes for the better recently.
No microtransactions, no stealthy practices, this developer is simply what every other developer should be. And every expansion is massive and adds tons of content for the price.
– Real player with 660.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Hack and Slash Games.
To me the most atmosphereic of the ARPG games. I am weird but I just was never into D2 very much and I had the disk version and got the missing DLL bug after about 6 months..
But back to GD. Of course there is a grind. And I use that word properley because you are gonna have to do the same areas more than once to handle other areas. not too bad though. The sound is great, I LOVE the music but some dont. The effects are top notch imo. The graphics are gorgeous imo. But I dont own any next gen games so…
– Real player with 364.1 hrs in game
Perennial Order
Perennial Order is a 2D plant horror boss rush, set in an atmospheric Dark Age world plagued by nature-infested horrors.
Explore a mysterious world alone or with a friend, uncover a story through unusual NPC’s, and cut down terrifying eldritch bosses, all in a painterly 2D style.
David vs. Goliath Combat
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Uncover a unique boss around every corner that will test you in different ways.
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Intense combat that utilizes twin stick melee controls.
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One-Hit-Death. Respawn directly at the beginning of an encounter to learn quickly from your actions; spend your time fighting rather than walking.
Captivating 2D Style
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A painterly 2D art style with a dark fantasy inspiration.
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Themes and visuals akin to the world designs of titles like Dark Souls and Princess Mononoke.
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Painstakingly crafted by 1 artist and 1 animator. We are developing the visual identity of Perennial Order through realistic, painterly techniques combined with 2D Spine animation.
Plagued by Nature
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Immerse yourself in a dreary land where unspeakable horrors roam.
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Discover Unusual NPCs and unravel more about this mysteriously beautiful world.
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Explore a rich atmosphere through sounds and score, with musical themes distinct to each boss.
Bonded Journey
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Experience the entirety of Perennial Order from start to finish with a friend.
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Start a file with another person, so your playthrough is linked.
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Local and Online Co-Op.
Key Features
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Unique Bosses | Different mechanics to adapt to. Lovecraftian and terrifying battles.
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One-Hit-Death | Every combat choice matters. Yeah
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Limited UI | Nothing to clog up the screen to add to the atmosphere.
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Intriguing NPCs and World | A world worth exploring.
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Weather System | Reactive environment to changing weather.
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Online and Local Co-Op | Bonded Journey mode. 2 player adventure.
We like to describe Perennial Order as Hollow Knight meets Titan Souls.
Where we are capturing the beautifully dark atmosphere mixed with the Boss Rush style gameplay.
Developed by Gardenfiend Games
James Markiewicz | Programming
Vincent Van Hoof | Art
Miguel Félix | Animation
Julian Crowhurst | Music / Audio
Styx: Shards of Darkness
Ah, yes. Styx. You know, I’ve never actually finished the original. Got about halfway, then lost interest. So this game already did better in that regard, since I’ve not only gotten all achievements but actually enjoyed it enough to keep playing after. So what can you, a potential buyer expect?
Let’s get the obvious things out of the way first. It’s a stealth game. Not a stealth-action game like Dishonored. Pure stealth, which means that you’re not meant to fight fair. The combat system is very basic as a result, and on the highest two difficulties it’s outright disabled. If you get caught, you either flee or turn invisible.
– Real player with 106.3 hrs in game
After almost 75 hours of play, it’d be hard for me to say I didn’t get my money’s worth, but while I had a blast (most of the time) playing Styx: Shards of Darkness, I think it was frequently in spite of the game rather than because of it.
Shards of Darkness is a stealth-focused, third-person action game with some great, sprawling maps that often had many paths to your objectives. The main character, a chatty, 4th-wall-breaking goblin named Styx, has a ton of unlockable skills and tools up his sleeve that offer a lot of replayability, despite most of those maps being reused two or three times. The game is at its best when it drops you into a level with all your tricks and leaves you to yourself to find your way. Unfortunately, it also suffers from some hyper-annoying bugs and poor design that will account for the vast majority of your deaths and reloads.
– Real player with 77.7 hrs in game
DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin
I am kind of surprised that I have not reviewed this game yet, Surprise! It’s my favorite of the series. I played DS2 twice as much as I did DS and DS3 combined. DS2 really hit the mark as slower pace, tactical, and methodical combat. I love the variety of viable builds in the game. I love the fashion in the this game compared to the others. I love the community that still plays this game and there are fair number of people on my friends list that I have met through this game.
I’m a a Sunbro at heart and the thing that I love the most about this game is the “Frigid Outskirts”. Growing up in Minnesota, it really made feel like home. I spent a good deal of time throwing my summons sign next to Vengarl of Forossa’s sign in the hopes that the host would choose us both of which they very often did. I would stick to Vengarl’s side like glue and watch his back and he would watch mine. It would be me, Vengarl, the host, and maybe another summons going across the frozen waste. Me trying to keep the host from going the wrong direction or running when the blizzard hits. As long as Vengarl was alive, I would be alive and as long as I was alive, Vengarl would be alive except for the times that he got donkey kicked off of the cliff.
– Real player with 598.4 hrs in game
After doing this game 100% I can safely say this game is an unfair piece of trash game that just wants you to suffer. The bosses are not the issue I did not find them to be unfair for the most part, yet they definitely are not good, the problem lies in the level design where the developers just decided to spam the same enemies over and over and over to just gank you as much as possible, so you suffer as much as they feasibly could make you because their goal was not to make a game like Dark Souls 1 where the player is supposed to overcome the challenges, the goal of the developers was to make a difficult game completely ignoring the vision of 1 where the difficulty is not the focus heck, even the intro tells you how many times you will die.
– Real player with 144.3 hrs in game
Darksburg
I’m writing this review for everyone who is thinking about picking up this game, but isn’t exactly sure yet.
At first I want to give a rough overview about the game and talk about positives and negatives after. Darksburg is an isometric cooperative 4 player game, thats heavily influenced by Left 4 Dead, Warhammer Vermintide and your typical ARPG title or even MOBA.
At the point I’m writing this review we have 3 different gamemodes: coop survival, last stand and PvP.
In the coop survival mode you have to get from point A to point B while defending yourself against hordes of attacking zombies and special infected, finishing different tasks like finding wooden planks and nails to repair a church door.
– Real player with 451.6 hrs in game
+============+
Updated based on ‘Going Rogue’ update.
This update is literally a game-changer! The new mode is a loooot of fun, with every single character receiving some great quality of life updates. It used to be ‘Varag is meant to be able to tear people apart’, well… you got what you asked for - now he can! Dolorosa has been an amazing addition (the 5th playable character), with some of the best CC in the game, which you need when there are now hordes of zombies coming for you.
In previous updates the hordes just kind of waited sometimes for you to come near, now they seek you out which feels much more zombie-horror-survival. There have been some minor art improvements which I love (though I am biased as I already love the setting) and oh so much more…
– Real player with 289.1 hrs in game
Hunted: The Demon’s Forge™
Usually it makes sense to start intros off by talking about an initial impression… Instead I’m going to make a suggestion: Pick E’lara, up the difficulty, grab a fastbow, don’t use cover, and only use the ADS and zoom for the very far away targets. The game becomes a pretty damn good strafe shooter. With that out of the way…
Hunted really does not leave a good initial impression. The gameplay, aesthetic, and presentation is an unfortunate result of that era of gaming that had releases proudly wearing a “I’m Gears of War but with blank” badge on their sleeve. Hunted’s blank is dark fantasy. The end result is a mixed bag of good ideas, clunky implementation and inconsistent polish, Yet somehow is still a really good time.
– Real player with 40.9 hrs in game
Normally I like to finish a game before I review it, but since this game is super cheap during the Steam WInter Sale, I wanted to go ahead and give a brief review while it’s still on sale.
Is Hunted a great game? No. It is fairly medoicre, however I do think it is worth the $1.24 that it is selling for right now.
It kind of feels like I am playing an over the shoulder 3rd person version of Diablo, just not as good as Diablo. The levels are quite detailed and interesting giving an open world feel, but is actually linear except for when stumbling onto secret areas. There aren’t a ton of secret areas (so far) but the secret areas are more than just a room too, and are actually a bit more interesting than the main game. The secret areas actually seem to give the world more life than the main game does. There are also some minor secret areas that require either the barbarian or the archer to open and if one doesn’t happen to be running that character it’s a little wonky figuring out how to open them. Thankfully, the minor secrets don’t hide anything important, just the occasional weapon rack or potions.
– Real player with 27.2 hrs in game
DARK SOULS™ III
This is one of my favorite games of all time. There’s so much depth, variety of playstyles and builds, plenty to explore and learn about the game, so many weapons to use and play with. Weapon arts are cool, hit boxes are (mostly) really fucking good in pve, and there’s an amazing sense of power in actions done in this game.
A lot of people consider ds3 the fastest of the 3, with faster movements, rolling, stamina usage, ect ect.
In my opinion, this gives your player character a “badassatry” that doesn’t exist in any other souls game. You’ll roll through giant moves, just BARELY dodge a flurry of attacks, and slam the enemy with your 66 strength scaled heavy ultra greatsword.
– Real player with 408.2 hrs in game
Masterful level design, compelling combat and weapon systems. varied and fun magical options. Dark souls 3 is the kind of game that you can replay over and over with different experiences each time. At the surface level, the community can seem toxic, but you can fairly easily get past those people to find the passionate, helpful, and friendly community it has to offer. If you’re looking at Elden Ring and not sure if you want to buy it, try this game first. Take the time to read item descriptions and npc dialogue for an interesting and interconnected story below the surface of it all.
– Real player with 289.5 hrs in game
Blightbound
Ok, let´s see. Blightbound is a 3 people cooperative dungeon crawler action oriented. You play with some people, kill mobs and bosses, complete missions and earn loot, which becomes better and better the more you play with the same team. You also develope the refuge where your characters level up and equip as you earn experience, and you can unlock many characters and their backstories as you preogress.
First of all, remember that this is an early access game. There are bugs, and lacks content, but I must say that the developers are active and updates come regularly.
– Real player with 46.7 hrs in game
Dont let the negative reviews scare you away from this one! It might not seem like it at first but this game has pedigree. Its another diamond in the rough from Devolver. IMO its one of the more accessible indies they’ve picked up in the last several years of back to back bangers. Ronimo has a small list of titles, but Awesomenauts released in the glorious age of xbox live arcade and has continued to get updates to this day. In an age of $60 AAA Flops and heartless money grabs, Blightbound stands true to its roots. $20 is a bargain.
– Real player with 27.8 hrs in game