Jacob Floyd – Google

Went in hesitantly because of word of mouth, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I’ll get the “bad” out of the way real quick: Yeah, the open world was empty (I get it for story reasons), which is not a problem exclusive to this game, I have my love-hate relations with open world games for this exact issue. The controls were a bit clunky and wonky, I could definitely tell it’s the same group that made FFXV because the controls in that game was also super clunky, and at times I would find myself attacking instead of things like jumping or using the zip line feature and I’d fall to my demise. The story could be somewhat underwhelming (more about the story later) and sure I get the hate for the dialogue because it did get annoying hearing Frey and Cuff repeat the same dialogue at times, however… To the good: Okay, so Frey and Cuff talking during gameplay, was it annoying at times? Yeah sure, but I loved relationship the two had (without going into any spoilers), Cuff’s witty remarks made me chuckle sometimes and Frey’s comments felt realistic (or as realistic as someone from NYC being transported to a fantasy world can be). The story had some weak spots, starting out at least, but it absolutely did pick up during the latter part and I found myself very invested in it, it was fun seeing Frey’s journey from start to finish. I mentioned that gameplay was clunky, but the combat system felt fluid and that was the best part of the game by far. I’m not someone who usually enjoys magic heavy gameplay, but Forspoken’s gameplay was incredibly fun and one of the better battle systems I’ve played in recent memory. The soundtrack was also enjoyable and definitely fit the game, so props to that aspect. Frey as a character felt like someone I could relate to more than other games since, as I already stated, she felt more real than other games’ characters. The DLC “In Tanta We Trust” was also an additional bonus and its semi-short length didn’t feel too overwhelming but also was worth the price of admission. Overall, I bought this game on sale and I have no regrets in doing so, it’s a shame we more than likely won’t get a sequel because of the bad publicity and poor sales the game had, maybe we can get the conclusion in a book or graphic novel as I want to see the ending of Frey’s journey. Obviously your mileage may vary with this, and any, game. But I have no quarrels giving Forspoken a 4/5.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance might take a long time to get into (seriously it takes about 20 hours or so to fully open up), but it is worth the ride. You can easily play hundreds of hours and still not be done with the game. While not perfect, KCD has an engaging story that is affecting by the player’s choices. You don’t feel like jumping through hoops to complete a mission and just want to kill a person to get it over with? Sure you can do that, but it can affect the outcome of future quests as well. The combat takes some time to master, and even once you max out your combat skills, fights can still be a hassle, but that just goes to show that diving head first into fights might not be the best idea. So basically, if you like open world first-person RPGs set in a medieval setting, this game might be for you.