Recent reviews by Mikefield Salviae

Having completed Act I, I have to say I'm extremely impressed. The game is gorgeous, challenging and fun to play. There are tons of possible builds to explore, the writing is stellar, the music is moving, the combat is dynamic and requires huge attention to detail, the areas are hand-crafted with extreme care, it's just an absolute gem.

It's a very exciting RPG with great foundations. The visuals are stunning and the system is deep enough to be enjoyable. A few things I like:
1) Stats do not lock you to a class. There is one universal stat for damage and you can therefore multiclass to your liking with no penalties.
2) Really fun combat with a lot of strategic openings and a ton of flashy moves;
3) Diverse gearing options, with hundreds of items to choose from;
4) Pacing of the game, where you get to do a TON of side quests, but everything feels fresh and inventive; there is no recycled content at all;
5) Lots of little references to PoE1 and PoE2 that make me smile. They know their world very well and the game is excellent at quietly acknowledging the previous campaigns.
This game is clearly a labour of love and I've had an absolute blast. GG Obsidian!

If you want to do a world boss, your best chances are to "hide under the stairs from p2w Russian multiboxer guilds and then go in and sneak in a hit". No thanks. Russian guild alliances have monopolised PvP on most servers and there is legit zero chance for competition over anything for normal players. PvE is super simplistic and gets boring fast. Very disappointing overall, clueless devs. The game looks nice and plays well, but that's about it.

An excellent ARPG, probably in my top 3 with PoE and Last Epoch right now. Great itemisation, solid mechanics, enjoyable progression, a lot to discover. The game uses a lot of familiar mechanics very effectively and it is really a pleasure to engage with it. The game's art style is very fresh and super pleasant. Graphically, it's beautiful and vibrant.

The devs are active and the game is under constant development with tons of new, meaningful content coming in every season, with the upcoming Season 5 bringing huge expansion to every existing class.

The game has a ton of optional classes you can buy, but the ones that are available with the base game purchase are extremely strong and very fun to play, with many of them being absolutely S tier in the meta.

Absolutely better than D4. No kidding.

Extremely slow and minimal growth in terms of content over Early Access period and once the EA ends, first thing they do then is announcing several DLCs and expansions. Just disappointing.

Extremely solid DLC. The new weapons are absolute FIRE, Dwarves make melee feel way better than it did, the medals offer new strategic choices, beers provide cool buffs. The map is very challenging, which I also love. Well done, devs!

This is the most fun I've had in an ARPG since Path of Exile. The game is complex and fun, the skills feel just right and the itemisation is pretty much perfect. Despite a rocky launch, the game is still very playable online. Don't let the D4 apologists fool you, this game a true gem!

EDIT: D4 bad, still the case in Season 4.

The "loot rework" made the game go from absolutely awful to below-average. It's still super underdeveloped, boring, bland and significantly inferior to Hero Siege, Last Epoch, Grim Dawn and PoE. Itemisation is still utter trash, skills and builds are shallow and the progression lacks any excitement. What I mean to say here is that Diablo IV is actual LEAGUES behind the competition, with a bunch of absolutely clueless developers at the helm. These guys have zero idea as to how to design a satisfying ARPG. And these same devs are now pushing out a 40$ DLC.


ORIGINAL REVIEW - still no changes here. After a year in development, the game still sucks.

The game is below industry standards. Systems are basic and boring, while the overall variety you get from season to season is nonexistent. Gearing sucks. They clearly have no idea what they're doing to such a degree that it's mind-boggling that someone is paying them to do their job. Season 3 is the worst season design I have ever seen, and I played through a lot of garbage seasons in PoE.
On the upside, sound and graphics are nice and ability design is cool. If you want a solid ARPG to sink your teeth into, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a short-term experience, there are better games for that.
I enjoyed levelling my first character and was very optimistic, only to find out later that all classes are basically rinse and repeat of the same mechanics with very little variety to them. Very disappointing.

Awful P2W mobile garbage. They manipulate votes - that's why this trash game gets "mostly positive" ratings on Steam. They're legit giving people benefits for leaving positive reviews. Report and avoid.

It's so clunky, just unbelievably frustrating to do basic things like swapping skills, using items and moving around. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥'s such a nice game and I would like to enjoy it but the core design of souls-like games is just anti-fun.