PC – Delfeir vs. the Backlog

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred Impressions

[DISCLAIMER: A copy of Vessel of Hatred was provided for free by the publisher.]

Diablo 4 is a game that’s somewhat contentious to talk about. People level a lot of criticisms against the way it’s been designed and monetised, and I generally agree with a lot of those. However, this usually leads to people just calling it a massive disappointment, or even just not very good. That’s a sentiment I simply don’t agree with. The Platformers Podcast spent four hours doing a deep dive on it, going into the full breadth of the campaign and why we felt that it was quite strong. We all enjoyed it, and that was always the experience I took away from Diablo 4. I still think it’s absolutely a great game and worth playing, even if you just play through the campaign once and call it a day.

Well, I was given the opportunity to try out a review build for the upcoming Vessel of Hatred expansion. I was a little hesitant going into this, as I felt that the ending of the base campaign was stronger if time was allowed to pass and a direct follow-up act didn’t happen right away. The consequences and uncertainty that the story left off on seemed like they should linger for a while, and the major antagonist we face going forward instead be left to take a back seat until Diablo 5 or similarly. I worried that it might end up spoiling how the ending lands. While I’ll go into more of that later, I can say that the expansion doesn’t invalidate things or spoil the tone of the original ending. They managed to thread that needle well, and the writing quality remains very good in the expansion, even if it simply doesn’t have the run time needed to develop everything quite as well. The highs aren’t quite as high.

But that’s just the story aspects. As to the rest… well, frankly? Vessel of Hatred isn’t likely to change anyone’s pre-existing sentiments about Diablo 4. If you already enjoy the game, then this is more of the same things that likely drew you in originally. If you didn’t care for the game, then this is not a Reaper of Souls situation; Diablo 4 is not being overhauled from the ground up with this one. It’s also safe to say that Diablo 4 really didn’t need the kind of instrinsic and fundamental overhaul to its structure that was needed for Reaper of Souls to make Diablo 3 an actually good game, though. Even the staunchest critics of Diablo 4 would likely accept that as truth.

Delfeir vs The Backlog General Update (Sept 2022)

Because the least I can do for my website is write stuff for it

Given that I’ve spent much of the year not updating this website, I figured I should rectify that.

Hi! I’m alive!

It’s been another one of those years that — while mercifully not spent in lockdown — has seen very little headway in any of the things I’d like to do or the projects I’ve begun. In addition to a status update on some of those, there’s a few games in particular I’ve played this year that I would like to write about, so I’ll put a spotlight on those in a mini-Backlog Report.

IGN Review of Galactic Civilizations IV

Let’s start off with the major positive news from the year: I got hired by IGN as a freelancer to review a game! If there was any doubt to myself (or others) that I’m not any good at what I do, that helped me dispel it significantly. Paid review work for one of the biggest games media sites on the internet? Regardless of your opinion of the website, that’s a big deal, and I was certainly thrilled. It was a good little opportunity to work with some very skilled, friendly, and communicative editors over there.

The only negatives about the experience were that the game in question (Galactic Civilizations IV) itself was not particularly good, but writing about it was nonetheless interesting. If you’ve not seen it yet, you can read the review over on IGN. I also wrote the script for the video version, which is slightly different and a lot more condensed due to word limits.

There’s more I’d like to write about GalCivs 4 that I didn’t touch on in the review, honestly. But the reason I elected to omit it from the review is that it’s a heavily political deep-dive into some of the systems and writing there, both as a political reading and as a kind of “eureka!” moment on why I always felt the series failed to meet my expectations. I think there’s plenty to say there, but it’s not what IGN is really about or particularly pertinent to the rest of the overall review. Hopefully I’ll get to put it up here at some point.

The Delfies 2021: Some Other Games I Liked This Year

You might actually find a western triple A game in here… but that’s unlikely.

If you haven’t read my Delfies 2021 Top 10 yet, you can find that here.

I found myself in the interesting place of having too many games and struggling to cut them down to a top 10 this year. At the same time, it felt like nothing in my top 10 could really compete with the top four or so from 2020, so it was harder still to make the selection. I’m ultimately satisfied with the placement of where everything ended up, but there were more games that I feel I could shine a light on. Some of them are the more mainstream triple A games that I enjoyed but ultimately washed over; some are indie games that were really charming in their own right but just couldn’t quite make the mark.

But hey, I’ve got a platform and time, so it’s only right that I spare some words for those as well.

With that sentiment in mind, I ended up ballooning this list even further. Many of these didn’t make the top 10 candidate list, and a few I’ve yet to finish at all (or they themselves are in early access, thus proving ineligible for now). Some I’ll get to in full later on, with any luck. This is more of a quantity over quality lightning round, but I’ll try to give them all a fair shake, and none of these are in any particular order.

Before we proceed, there’s a few games I also want to mention that interest me, but I’ve yet to actually start playing them properly or else they’d likely be here too. Those are: Everhood, Tales of Arise, Death’s Door, Psychonauts 2, FIST: Forged in Shadow Touch, The Forgotten City and Outer Wilds’s DLC Echoes of the Eye. I just haven’t had the chance to tackle them for more than an hour if at all yet, but they’re all in my immediate future. So now let’s cover the ones I actually did get to.

The Delfies 2021: Top 10

Objectively the only correct choices on the internet. That’s totally what this means.

2021 wasn’t a bad year for games, but it also didn’t feel like a particularly inspiring one. There wasn’t really any single game that absolutely blew me away or changed my perspectives on the hobby like 2020 did. In fact, the opposite happened: the one game that I dared to let my guard down and hype up for myself ended up disappointing me beyond what I thought possible. You will not be seeing Final Fantasy 14’s Endwalker expansion on this list; that gets its own article later on, and it’ll be far less celebratory.

Still, let’s not be a total downer on what’s meant to highlight the best of the year. Not until the end of the article, anyway. So, I’m going to split this into two articles. The one you’re reading now is what I personally consider my top 10 for the year. There’ll be a follow up article not long after to cover other games I enjoyed this year that didn’t make the cut, either because I didn’t finish them or didn’t find them quite as complete. I’ll also mention what systems I played them on specifically.

Without further ado, the Delfies of 2021!

Backlog Battle Report (May-July 2021)

Who needs in-depth coverage when you can have a lightning round?!

Writing’s been slow again, compounded by the usual suspects but also by a keyboard malfunction. This necessitated a new one: a Logitech G512 with brown tactile switches since I enjoy blasting people over Discord with my fast typing. Nothing special, but it does the job and it’s holding up so far. The malfunction happened while I was about halfway through writing this, though! That stalled me even further, but it also let me add new games to the list in the interim. If some of these entries seem like they were written separately, that’s why.

I’m still in between a bunch of articles and projects, but still have plenty of games played and things to talk about in general. Some of these will get a full piece eventually, should I manage to actually pull something together that I’m satisfied with. But until then, here’s what I’ve been playing for the last while.

The usual drill: two or three paragraphs tops (Future Delfeir here just to laugh at that statement…), focused more on quantity and general impressions than anything too detailed. It’s also not a completely exhaustive list, but mostly just the highlights and things that are worth talking about. Trust me, I won’t be short of things to talk about… this one clocks in at about six thousand words, so be warned. ‘ere we go!

Subnautica: Below Zero (PC)

I had to double check when I started writing this that I hadn’t talked about this one already here. Shows how much time has passed, I suppose. Either way, the Subnautica spinoff/sequel came out of Early Access a couple months back. I really enjoyed the original, so I was quick to “dive back in” to this one, hurr hurr. Regardless, it didn’t disappoint, and it was a good time all around. There’s still something about these two games and their alien environments that really stand out amidst the crowd of other survival games out there.

Below Zero is a shorter affair than its predecessor, and I wrapped it up in maybe half the time. It can be described as condensed in both good and bad ways. I don’t think there’s quite as many interesting or varied biomes to explore or materials to find. However, the technology progression and story pacing is much smoother, so Below Zero just seemed to flow better in general. I enjoyed the story better overall too, so there’s that. It’s an easy recommend for anyone who finds the concept intriguing, no matter your familiarity with the first.

Loop Hero Impressions — Brother, May I Have the Loops

Just one more loop… hmm, okay, just one more…

Hello. I’m Delfeir, and on Friday I played a new game. My intention was to sample it for about an hour before writing something unrelated. I did no writing, played for about four hours, delayed my sleep so I could play yet another, and then had dreams about the damn thing. Once I woke up and told people about it somewhat, I intended to write this impressions piece that you’re now reading. Instead, I played more of the game in question for the better part of the whole weekend. I’ve almost completely finished it with 30 hours under my belt in that time. Even now, however, the siren song to finish the tail of the game still calls.

Loop Hero might be the most addictive game I have ever played, ye gods. So let’s talk about it.

Loop Hero is a weird blend of genres right out the gate. The best way to describe it would honestly be to call it an idle game, the genre that Cookie Clicker birthed. It also takes cues from auto battlers like the Dota Auto Chess mod. Wrap that framework with a roguelite deck building game and resource gathering, and you have the bones of Loop Hero.

Outriders Demo Impressions — [Screen Shake Intensifies]

Surprising no-one except games industry management, looter/shooters are better when you actually make a complete product from the start.

This week has seen me playing a staggering amount of Bravely Default 2. Releasing in the same week as Persona 5 Strikers is always a ballsy proposition, yet my Bravely playtime is something like triple that of Strikers right now. And I don’t even think it’s as good as Persona! It just… has its hooks in me. I’m fully intending to do bigger write ups on both these games and my opinions on them, but I’m probably going to save it until I’ve progressed further in both.

So instead, let’s talk about the three hour break I took to play the Outriders demo.

Outriders is an upcoming third person looter/shooter by People Can Fly. It can be played with up to four people in co-op, has four different classes, and- hey, hold on a second, don’t leave. Yes, it sounds like the now officially dead Anthem, not to mention every other looter shooter on the planet. This one is showing signs of being different though. By different, I mean actually completed, functional, and competent. It’s got a story, it’s got good systems and progression, it’s got interesting loot, and it promises to be a reasonably sized game that happens to have endgame and co-op support.

There’s a demo on Steam right now, and it comes out in April. You can blow through most of the content they have there in a couple hours, but it’s the full start of the game and progress does carry over to the final release. It’s a good chance to try out the different classes and abilities to see what gels. Currently there’s mixed opinions, but early consensus on Outriders seems to be leaning towards more positive than anything. I’m definitely more positive about it.

I will not be buying Outriders — despite liking it — until a specific change is made.