Geek of Oz

DISCLAIMER: As this review is a First Impressions of a game that is still in development, there will be no */10 Geeks score at the end. There is also a slant towards the positive aspects and, unless otherwise stated, any mention of negative elements or bugs may be attributed to the game still being made. Some who wish to remain clean of any foreknowledge may also find MINOR SPOILERS in this review. -- If you'd asked me three years ago whether I'd be up for covering Dark Souls III , I'd've probably said no. By most accounts, the first game was both overwhelmingly difficult and known to lead to players literally snapping their controllers in half . But then my housemate birthday gifted it to me, and I found it pretty enjoyable in a maniacal, clearly-I-have-no-will-to-live kind of way. The second game , simultaneously improving on and mucking up elements of the first one, was also pretty great. I did like the greater emphasis on the main character, as well as th...

I loved the first Dark Souls  because I was never very good at it. I'm one of the first to herald games that don't hold you by the hand for their runtime. I feel a lot of those Call of Duty or Uncharted -type spectacle-driven escapades not only make the experience only slightly above watching a movie, but they invariably detract from the higher brain functions games can and should tap into. Give me the choice between tapping buttons to imperiously shoot things monotonously or employing the upstairs thinking machine to sort out tactics when battling homicidal skeletons, and it's not choice at all. So even though it flayed me like a Greyjoy, I really dug Dark Souls . It was a complex, visually rich and mechanically challenging grind I was happy to consign myself to for several hours at a time. To be honest, I never possessed the masterful control over the monsters and environment many Let's Players developed through constant, blood-soaked repetition. I just liked...