This game is frustrating.
I have spent the last half 3-4 hours of gameplay with half my HP bar, after an unfortunate death by Curse. I still haven't lifted the Curse. I still have the halved HP bar, so each encounter is more difficult than it should be. The threat from going from "max" HP to dead is very real.
To lift the curse, I have to find/buy a consumable item. This item has not appeared anywhere I've seen, from any of the vendors I've seen. None of the monsters that inflict Curse drop items that can lift it, nor does the vendor in that area carry the cure. That's... fine, I guess. If I were desiging the game, I'd have the local vendor have a supply of the stuff at a marked up price, but a store halfway across the map have it for cheaper. Regional demand and all.
This Curse is making me play a lot more cautiously, moreso than I already am, but it's also causing me to make mistakes. Right when you get to Blighttown, you're walking on some dock-like structures, when these big troll-y dudes jump you. Well, not jump, but more "Stomp towards you weidling clubs as long as your character is tall". Their main attacks are an overhead chop, and a sweeping attack. Both attacks are near-One-Hit-KOs when cursed, but the horizontal attack has some knockback.
This attack can be an issue on these narrow pathways.
Additionally, with my health being so low, I try to play cautiously, so I try to make sure I am well out of the attack range. Which has caused me to roll off the ledge repeatedly.
The cumulative affects of the Curse and the stonewalling at this point, probably due to the nature of my build, as a high Strength character could have better armor, or have invested in more Vitality, but something isn't sitting right. This followed a lengthy stay in the Depths, where I got cursed in the first place. Something isn't sitting right and I can't put my finger on it.
Something just feels off.
If you haven't realized by now, a lot of how I game is built off feeling, so it cna be hard for me to articulate what I'm processing when playing this game. Hell, that's part of the reason why I'm writing these.
Dark Souls has the, well, soul of a good game. Maybe a great game, even. It's got a tightly constructed map, strong and fairly unified theme, and it's terrain changes up enough so one strategy doesn't easily carry you through everything. A broadsword may be working great for you in the Burg, but in the tight confines of the Depths, the wide swing may cause more issues, for example. The Estoc/Magic combo I have been refining and working with after experimentation has it's limits. Fast enemies can dodge the light homing of Soul Arrow, and the Estoc does not have a very wide sweeping attack. The one it does have is the heavy attack, which is open to punishment. It is, however, excellent in confined spaces, since it can thrust a surprisingly long distance and doesn't hit the walls.
All that aside, there's just a lot of things that feel juuuuust off enough. It's like the uncanny valley of games. I can see the intent, I can see the goals, I can see what they were going for, but something isn't quite right. It's unsettling, not in the good "creepy horror/atmospheric" way, but more that I cannot settle on what's bothering me about it. It's a feel thing, and it feels off.
This reminds me of another Good Bad Game I've played. This game has the opposite problem. The core gameplay is solid and good, but everything else about it feels exploitative and manipulative. I'm talking about NBA 2K19. I'll give you a moment to brace yourself for this tone change, because while I've been vague on the bad for Dark Souls, and more specific with the good, I know exactly what bothers me about the next game.
Ready? Good.
NBA 2K19 uses something call Virtual Currency (VC) as the main in-game currency to fuel their game modes. That's fine. We're off to an alright start. Being able to selectively choose your unlocks is rad. It sounds 'fine', I'm not gonna call it good, but it sounds fine, but it's actually a lot more devious than that.
NBA2K has two really popular game modes: MyCareer and MyTeam. MyCareer lets you play as a created player or General Manager, and go through their career in the league. Standard fare. They add some story elements and things like that where you can gain fans, or respect from other players or your teammates, whatever. I want to focus on the Player version of the Career Mode.
In MyCareer, your player starts off as a 65 rated player. Sports games typically run the range from 1-100 for player ratings. Most players who are on teams don't run further below a 70. When I got signed with my team after the Prologue chapter, I was the lowest rated member on the team. The game's progression system is so fucked that after hours of playing the career, that's still my rating, but I've almost reached Starter status on the squad, ahead of an 80s rated player.
You upgrade these skills using VC. You earn VC by playing the games, doing the daily log in, and the Free Spin... Boy that sounds like a mobile game.
Because it is modeled after one.
Every action you take to improve your character or customize them, requires VC. You want to wear a new pair of shoes? VC. You want to get a wristband, so your player doesn't look like the standard model and so you can have your own style? Spend VC. Want to grade your Free Throw stat from a 56 to a 57, VC. Any time you're not in a game, you're no more than 2 button presses from the "Purchase VC" screen. If you haven't seen it, it looks like this.
Straight up out of a Free to Pay mobile game. This game costed $60 at launch.
Well, I shouldn't be bothered, right? I hardly spend money on free to play games as it is. I should be able to avoid this and earn through playing. Right?
Let me start by saying I haven't spent any money on the game beyond the price I paid to buy it on sale. But man, this currency is used EVERYWHERE. It permeates everything and every game mode. I will say real quick, that there's a chance for you to earn rewards in this career mode that correlates to a different game mode that you may never play. And mode has its own host of issues. You can get a more broken version the above information and the MyTeam mode here.
NBA 2K19 feels good to play, I like playing it, but every time I do play it, I want to turn it off or recoil. As an overall product, this is Bad. The gameplay is great, but it's just wrapped in a shitty shell. It's like you made a delicious burger, but then wrapped it in moldy bread. The microtransactions and the Gatorade sponsorships everywhere just make this feel like a real grimy game sometimes.
But, I suspect that Blighttown will be grimier. Place is a filthy mess.
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