Recent reviews by Mikefield Salviae

It's a lot of trial and error in this game. Don't be afraid to experiment and to figure things out; even if you lose, you make a lot of progress. Just enjoy yourself and smash some zombies, the game's absolutely lovely!

Being a veteran of essentially all party-based RPGs starting from BG1, I really, really wanted to like BG3. But I just can't. D:OS2 was such an amazing game and it's really a shame to see them abandon their own system for something far inferior.

BG3 doesn't do anything very well. Companions are really "in your face", just dumping all their personal issues on you day one. The writing is decent, but the game fails to create a serious atmosphere that the other contemporary fantasy-themed games have (WOTR/Pillars of Eternity of the more recent ones).
Gameplay-wise, BG3 really falls short. Map navigation and movement are clunky and annoying, they didn't change a thing from D:OS2. You will watch your team climb up and down the ladder 3 times before they decide to move and pathing seems to honestly be worse because the environments are more complex.
Combat is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awful, no way out of this; the environmental interactions from D:OS had to be limited, melee just runs around and autoattacks, martial classes are really boring (because of the system they picked up) and not that special at all.
Graphically, the game is very pretty and the animations are great; it's just that the more serious re-skin and the original DOS style are not compatible, making the game very pretty but not visually coherent. The music is fantastic, but it's D:OS all over again (just like the visuals), it is far too light-hearted and has very little to do with BG1/2. This could have been an amazing D:OS3, rather than a very mediocre D&D game suffering from an identity crisis.

I feel like they shot themselves in the foot, honestly. The game took the combat-focused level design from DOS and took the notoriously awful combat from D&D, ditching the amazing system they built with DOS1/2. As a result, combat is pretty dull because D&D is just meatbags with stats punching each other until death; then, you have the half-assed implementation of the Divinity mechanics (surfaces/barrels) and martial classes that essentially can only autoattack (remember D:OS martial archetypes? You had dozens of skills to use every turn). It's a turn-based game, I'd very much like my melees to be able to do more than just right-click enemies for damage. And while the DOS environments were great for just exploration, combat and looting, they are not good for serious storytelling and the lite version of combat that D&D can offer (because, let's face it, it is pretty dumbed down for it to work for tabletop).

It's a 5/10 game imo. Very disappointed with how this turned out. I sincerely regret buying it.

Dungeon of Nahelbeauk is a game based on a French classic. It is a tactical dungeon crawler with all the RPG elements you may ever want. You control a party of EIGHT characters in extremely difficult, tactical encounters and experience the crazy story that features excellent humour and really epic battles.

Check my video review here: https://youtu.be/rHwYtLr8WNg

With EIGHT characters you can use in combat, here is what really got me: the game is extremely rich here! everyone has TWO skilltrees (active and passive), 9 gear slots they equip items on and 6 characteristics to evolve, plus a HUGE NUMBER of secondary stats. Items come with various unique properties, too so it not just flat stat bonuses. Armor ignoring daggers? Here you go! Special proc effects activating - also there! This keeps the levelling system and gearing really exciting and gives you a lot of choices.
This game has a ton of RNG but it also has a system in place to counteract it - a special misfortune bar fills up whenever you get unlucky (you miss or critically miss - yes, those are two different things). You will gain access to four special skills based on how much of the bar you have filled up, allowing you to gain extra moves, heal and cleanse your characters and gain cool buffs.
Combat borrows a lot from X-Com and other tactical games of the genre. We have a fully functional overwatch system, cover, flanking, backstabs, positioning - the only thing we're missing is high ground.
Your characters work together - there are special passives that provide your team with powerful bonuses when specific characters stand next to each other in combat.
Monsters and combat encounters always feel unique! The fights are scripted, with reinforcements coming in, environmental hazards, special tiles, traps, enemies that have unique moves - overall, it's an exciting and wholesome experience! This comes with FOUR difficulties, so if the combat is a bit too challenging, you can dial it down, while if you want your fights to really test your mettle, you can indulge, too. Higher difficulties add extra opponents to fights, which means it's not just bloated stats.
The music is BEAUTIFUL, the game is FULLY VOICED by excellent voice actors. The characters are really cool when they argue with each other - we have a cocky ranger, bimbo elf, charismatic wizardess, discombobulated ogre, panicky thief, horny priestess, lisping bard and a glory-hungry paladin. The characters make tons of meta-refernces to other games and fantasy popculture. Plus a ton more of those that you can only get if you're French I guess.
Now, the game has some small issues.

Check out my first impressions here: https://youtu.be/nWxI8RYskkI
Dreamscaper is an isometric souls-like game. It has a lot of complexity, excellent gear system, very tricky boss fights, extremely demanding opponents and holds a ton of crazy secrets. It also features an insane learning curve. What an absolutely fantastic game!

It is a solid combat-driven DLC. If you like the way Pillars 2 handle combat, you will enjoy playing these series of challenges. I had a lot of fun with the encounters provided here.
A small tip: if you find combat too easy even on PotD, there is a mod called "deadly deadfire" that allows you to further increase the difficulty.

It is a nice game and as such, it carries a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it lacks depth in terms of complexity of character development, crafting, itemisation and combat. People saying it surpasses DA:I (which by no means was even a great game) are simply delusional - it lacks even a semi-decent stat system and the crafting upgrades are incredibly straight-forward and dumbed down.

The overall number of actions your character can perform in combat is simply underwhelming. Combat itself gets very stale and repetitive very quickly and is honestly another huge issue the game has. In your travels you will meet bosses but they are honestly extremely easy to defeat - I didn't go beyond two attempts on extreme difficulty. The most "difficult" fights are those against massive numbers of opponents who just overwhelm you in numbers. Winning those encounters is not too satisfying honestly, as you just run around and get attakced by six to eight enemies at the same time. On top of all that, your companions are pretty worthless on extreme as even in high-end gear they tend to run in and insta-die to the huge number of monsters, leaving you alone (sure, resurrection powder is a thing but damn it, I wish they would live through the simple trash mob fights every now and then).

The movement in and outside of combat is extremely clunky (dodging is just so weird and inconsistent) and learning how to walk was a pretty excruciating experience for me. Opening the doors is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrifying after a while as well.

The game is a 6/10; it simply does not live up to the contemporary standards and still carries an AAA price label nonetheless.

The DLC is excellent! The story is gripping, the visuals are stunning and the new items are superb. I'm not a fan of the snowy settings but this one goes far beyond that. It also fills in a lot of lore details, especialy about the previous Eothas' appearance in Dyrwood.

I have never been into JRPGs but this game is just excellent, very well-written, gorgeous in terms of graphics and effects, superbly intricate and just generally very very solid. If you have ever enjoyed turn-based games, be it Divinity:OS, Dofus, Wakfu, FF: Tactics or X-Com, this title is a must-play. It's fresh, well-thought out and just impressive in terms of the amount and the quality of content.

Pillars of Eternity 2 have set the new standards for party-based RPGs, and those standards are going to be very hard to match now. The game does well on basically every level: the plot is extremely well-written and engaging, the writing is sharp and just dazzling at times, graphically, the game goes beyond expectations. Combat and character progression are smooth, balanced, transparent and extremely satisfying. The music is just pure gold; the only thing the game is missing are longer dungeons - the void that is filled by the DLCs but it seems to be a fairly serious oversight nontheless.

EDIT: The DLCs have added a huge amount of depth and challenges, the devs also created four endgame megabosses which are a huge combat challenge. What an excellent game!

9/10

It is a very solid D&D based RPG, very much in the spirit of the old RPGs such as Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale. The gameplay is very close to Neverwinter Nights 2 but is not as clunky.

I have to say that I enjoyed the D&D games very much (especially NWN2) and it is a great throwback for me but I can't imagine how frustrating this game is to play for the people who are not faimiliar with D&D. The system itself is very archaic for a digital setting and doesn't feel as smooth when you have Pillars of Eternity 2 to compare it to. Overall, it's very pleasant to play as a veteran of the similar games anyway.

Now, to the issues I have with the game and later to the things I like:

Loading screens take way too long, especially when you get to manage your kingdom. I have an SSD and still end up alt-tabbing and losing the focus because of how many loading screens making a single action takes. It is a huge QoL oversight. Might be game-breaking for the people without SSDs to be honest, I can't imagine how horrible it has to be.

The weakest point of the game is the writing. The dialogues are bland and uninteresting; in the new Torment, Tyranny and PoE I'd read every single bit of dialogue, here it feels like clicking "next" is the best way of dealing with the thing. The story is very poor, extremely cliche and uninspiring. I don't care it is an original D&D campaign, it just does not have any epic feeling to it, has to be the most generic adventure I have ever played. It is not engaging. Companions are horribly written and plain boring, they have no personality whatsoever, just boring bland potatoes with quests arbitrarily attached to them (the quests are also very poorly presented). It is a huge gripe I have with the game.

Music is OK but again, does not compare to the soundtracks of other contemporary RPGs such as the DOS 1/2, PoE 1/2 and even the likes of Dragon Age 3 or the Witcher 3. Once again, a very generic experience here with nothing really memorable.

Graphically, the game looks very good, it is very transparent. So, good job there.

Difficulty-wise, it's extremely rough at the beginning and then smooths out by the end of Act 1. Feels like a huge oversight on the part of the devs, level 1/2 characters in D&D are just plain awful and the adventure should probably start at level 3 (just like both NWN games) to alleviate that.

It's very nice to have all the options to scale the difficulty up as you find the fights progressively easier. A nice touch.

The kingdom management part is nice but does not feel too impactful (very little reward for a lot of effort/planning), a lot is very much RNG-based too which is not that great.

I would say overall it is a pleasant experience but it does not match the other contemporary RPG productions that have hit the market over the past few years. I'd say 7 but despite all the major flaws I'm enjoying the game too much to go below 8.

8/10.