Brad Ezard

The mismatch between how it was marketed and how the game plays had it scoring low, and then the technical and performance issues set it in stone. This game has been marketed on the involvement of George R.R. Martin in the story/lore, it has been marketed with comparisons to The Elder Scrolls series, but it falls flat in this regard. The game opens with an exposition dump, and that's the last time you'll get any. From then your task is to follow the arrows given by some of the graces, hope you don't miss one or find a different nearby grace (as they may not have a direction for you) until you reach a boss that is not just Dark Souls hard, but impossible because you were expected to go off and grind a bunch first. Everything is hostile, and there's no reason given as to why. Exposition comes from a lot of backtracking, but you wouldn't know that if you don't google it as the game gives you no indication that you shouldn't just follow the light. And then there are the performance issues. It had no business being released on PS4, as when more than a few enemies appear you are guaranteed death as the framerate changes from frames per second to seconds per frame. In a game that is about action combat (since it can't be about anything else due to the lack of story drive), framerate and responsiveness are the only things that matter. Overall I think this is a game that is great for Soulsborne fans with current gen consoles, and a waste of money for anyone else, especially those who are TES fans, or fans of games that are story driven.