The RPG genre has had a renaissance in recent years. From massive hits like Baldur’s Gate 3 to experimental titles like Disco Elysium, RPGs have surpassed the standard template to include new and unique experiences. The Thaumaturge, from Fool’s Theory and 11-bit studios, is a new RPG on PS5 that brings its unique setting, story, and gameplay. Should RPG fans drowning in options for 2024 and into 2025 take the time to move The Thaumaturge to the top of their backlog, or does this game fall to its myriad of demons? Let’s find out! One of the Most Unique RPGs I’ve Played When I first saw The Thaumaturge, I was intrigued. Its 20th-century Warsaw setting, detailed graphics, and phenomenal folklore-inspired demons checked a ton of boxes for me as a gamer. I followed the reception for the PC release, and when the opportunity to review it came up for the PS5, I jumped at the chance to check it out. And let me tell you, fellow gamers, I am so glad I did. For those who want to know if The Thaumaturge is worth your time and money, let me save you a few hundred words by saying yes, especially if you’ve enjoyed recent RPGs prioritizing story, dialogue, and choice. Let’s start with the story for those who want a more in-depth analysis. You play as Wiktor Szulski (pronounced like “Victor”), a Thaumaturge. These masters of mystical arts have supernatural perception that allows them to peer into people’s hearts and detect emotions that have attached themselves to everyday objects. This allows Wiktor to examine almost anything in the environment and pick up on the emotions, desires, and secrets of those who have interacted with it. Not only can a Thaumaturge do this, but they can also recruit and summon demons known as Salutors that prey on flaws found in human beings. These flaws include pride, greed, recklessness, and the like. All of this lends Wiktor the kind of reputation that precedes him, and you’ll encounter a number of characters who are amazed, suspicious, or downright hateful toward him in equal measure. It’s a world that feels real from the moment you set foot in it. This is due to the quality of the writing, the Polish voice actors that lend authenticity to the setting, and the beautiful and detailed environments. At first, I was also surprised at how personal the storyline can be. You start off by investigating a murder, but soon, you find yourself heading home to attend your father’s funeral. Of course, there are side quests that you can find through exploration, and I highly recommend you do them as they add richness to the world and characters. But by and large, The Thaumaturge is a story that weaves the supernatural into everyday life in a way I wasn’t expecting, but one that feels compelling nonetheless. The characters are deep and nuanced, especially the ones you investigate and get to know by exploring their homes and possessions to … Read More
Elden Ring Walkthrough Guide – First Steps Toward Stormveil Castle
So, you’ve gone out and bought or borrowed an Elden Ring and now you’re stumped. The large open world of Elden Ring is a beautiful and dangerous land to see, but now that you’re in the land of the tarnished, a little guidance may be useful. In this Elden Ring guide series, I’m going to take you through the base game. I will likely mention side quest locations as we near them. Maybe bring up the location of a secret item that could be useful along the way, but this will be a pretty straightforward guide to help you along the way in case you get lost. You have likely already begun the game, so I’m just going to recap the starting area of the game and explain our way to and through Stormveil Castle. You’re going to be thrown into a boss fight right off the bat. Don’t sweat it at all. This boss is meant to kill you from the get go. When you have completed the game and started New Game+, you’ll be able to get your revenge and easily whoop him the second time around. Now our journey begins in the Stranded Graveyard. Making your way through is pretty straightforward and there are messages along the way that explain the basic controls of the game for you. You will see as you playthrough that the controls become more advanced and just how simple this area really is. Enjoy it while it lasts because it won’t be long until things begin to heat up. Now that you have made your way through most of the area, it’s time to face a mandatory mini boss. Soldier of Godrick is very easy to beat. You shouldn’t have much trouble defeating him, but keep in mind, he is probably the easiest fight in the game. After you finish the tutorial, the game picks up the pace and starts punishing you for underestimating your enemies. It’s not hard to get overwhelmed by baddies. Now that you’re out of the cave, I would recommend exploring a little bit. It’s a huge open world and there are a lot of hidden secrets to be found. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s time to make our way to Stormveil Castle. Start making your way East and enter the Storm Gate. If this is your first playthrough, just take your time and try not rush right into fights as there will be more soldiers around the area. You stealthily work around the area to take a headcount and try to lure some of them in one at a time. Or just rush right in there and see what happens. Totally up to you. As you work your way, there are going to be some dangerous enemies ahead. Crossbowmen and a large troll are just waiting to ambush you. My first time through, the troll killed me. I ended up riding past the area on Torrent … Read More
Elden Ring – Best Rune Farming Location
Elden Ring hosts a lot of challenges and the further you progress, the more challenging it will become. Therefore, farming for runes to level yourself up can be a key step towards victory in the end. There are a handful of places to farm runes, but there is one place in particular that will load you right up with tons of runes. Infact, you can scrape up a few million runes in under an hour in this location. I’m talking about The Palace Approach Ledge Road site of grace. Here you can easily squeeze out 30,000 runes in about 1-2 minutes and the grace site being right there, you can reset over and over again. There are two ways to reach The Palace Approach Ledge Road site of grace. There’s a fairly simple way that’ll get you there earlier than the second way, but how you choose to get there is up to you. Personally, I recommend the hard way, that way you can experience the bulk of the game the way it was intended. If you’re just about farming and getting through with ease, here’s the first way to reach the site of grace you need. The easiest way to reach The Palace Approach Ledge Road is by completing Varre’s questline. This is an NPC you meet very early on in the game. He is first located at The First Step Site of Grace. There is no way to miss him unless you do it on purpose. Go ahead and speak to Varre and exhaust his dialogue. Now you’ll need to make your way to Godrick, the first real boss fight you’ll face in Elden Ring. Once you have defeated Godrick, go back to The First Step Site of Grace and speak Varre again. Varre is going to tell you to hold an audience with the Two Fingers at the Roundtable Hold. Once you have completed this step in the questline, you will find that Varre is no longer standing at The First Step Site of Grace. Instead, he has left you a message to find him at the Rose Church. The Rose Church isn’t too difficult to find. It is located West of the Academy Gate Town Site of Grace. Once you reach this grace, you can travel directly west to reach the church. Once you reach the church, you will Varre standing outside the entry. Be aware that if you step inside the church an NPC will invade you at the church and you’ll need to kill him. Otherwise, just speak Varre and tell him Something Seemed Off about the two fingers. He will carry on dialogue with you and give festering bloody fingers. USe the fingers to invade another player’s world 3 times. You don’t have to win the fight nor stay to fight if you’d not bother other players to complete this quest. After the three invasions, speak to Varre again. Make sure you select to be anointed … Read More
Elden Ring… the best RPG of all time!
Elden Ring has gone on to become my favorite video game of all time. I know that sounds drastic to some when considering the long list of video games available to play and to date myself, I’ve been playing video games since 1985. So, how on earth after playing more video games than I could possibly count did Elden Ring manage to take the top spot for me? Well, that’s a long answer, so I’m going to put it down into sections. None If the reasons listed are in any particular order, so I wouldn’t read too deeply into the placement. For starters, the games lore is top notch. Call it a story if you’d like, but the story is the lore. Playing through Elden Ring is rather realistic in the sense of how the story unfolds. I imagine that if I were in a primitive land on a mission to kill the lands lords and become a lord myself, it would unfold much like the game. Not a lot of clues, not a lot of friendlies and a whole lot of exploring. You never know what you’re going to get yourself into. That is unless of course you beat the game and start a new one. For the most part, you know what’s happening down the line. If it were real life, I could become a tour guide and talk about my adventures. Of course, if I’m an Elden Lord, I’d probably just have one of my subjects tell my story, but that’s just semantics. Well balanced. FromSoftware is known for challenging players. The Souls series is a great example of that, but I will say Elden Ring isn’t quite as tough as the Souls games. It’s still quite a challenging game, especially for newcomers that have no real prior experience with Fromsoftware games. The balance is pretty near perfect. It offers a good amount of challenge, but it also offers many ways to get relief if you just can’t get beyond an area. An enormous map. Man, this map is huge and it has so many hidden locations and items, it makes my head spin. During my first playthrough, I could have never grasped just how large it is. During my second playthrough, I wound up uncovering areas underground that I hadn’t discovered in my first run. Just when I thought I’d seen it all, I discover a new map. Wow. Now, I have beaten all the games in the Souls series and I’d like to include BloodBorne and Sekiro for good measure, but completing Elden Ring the first tike around gave me more satisfaction than any of those titles. Probably because I sunk around 160 hours into my first playthrough and was just blown away by the vast amount of freedom to explore. I just can’t get over it. I’m sad for the ones writing articles about how they have Elden Ring fatigue before completing the game. All in all, Elden … Read More
Easy Rune farming for Eldin Ring Newcomers
Elden Ring, Oh Elden Ring! What many critics are considering the best title to release from developer FromSoftware (myself included), this game delivers plenty of challenges for most players. To help with those challenges, I’m going to drop some tips and tricks I have learned about along the way. If you have any tips, please, feel free to share them! Today I’m going to tell you about what seems to be the easiest way to farm runes in Elden Ring when you’re fairly new to the game. Runes are needed for leveling up your character, your weapons and much more! While farming is repetitive and can get boring rather quick, it’s still something I find myself doing when in desperate need to gain a few more levels for different reasons at the time. The initial area for a higher rune payout can be quite treacherous for a lower level player, but the risks are worth it in the end. In order to her there, you’ll need to locate the Bestial Sanctum. In order to find this grace, you’ll need to defeat the boss Margit. If there is a way around this boss fight, I have no knowledge of it, but summon a few helpers if the boss proves to be a bit much for you. Once you’ve defeated Margit, you can move onto the Round Table area and speak with a character that is sitting at the table. D, hunter of the dead, will offer up some information you need to find your way to the grace location and sell/teach you incantations. From here, check your map and place a beacon to location D has pointed out to you. I would suggest fast traveling to the grave that I’d closest to the location you’re looking for and then riding Torrent the rest of the way. Once you have reached the area, it’s time to look a little closer and you will see a portal. Go ahead and use the portal and you will safely arrive in Bestial Sanctum. You will be a rather large fellow on the other side of the room. Go ahead and chat him up, he’s friendly. Notice in the opposite direction of the room is an exit and a not so friendly baddy will be standing guard. No need to worry about him right now, because you’re going to ride right past him while using torrent. If you’re here to farm runes, you’re probably not quite ready for this fight. He takes a lot of damage before he’ll go down. If you don’t want to disturb the boss, you can go left or right once you step out the main doors and work your way down to Lennes Rise where you’ll find another grace. Before you reach Lennes Rise, you’ll have to travel a little ways to get there. There are plenty of enemies to fight along the way if you’re feeling froggy. These enemies are worth around 1000 runes and … Read More
Elden Ring Review
Elden Ring is here at last and if you have been reading the reviews, you know this game is probably pretty damn good. Being compared to games like The Legend of Zelda is no easy feat and dare I boast my opinions with others and claim that this could be one of the greatest games that have ever been created? Yes… yes I do. This game is indeed an instant classic and a literal game changer for the industry. It will go down in gaming hosted as one of the best games ever created and there are plenty of good reasons. So, so many things to discuss and so little space in this review, but I’m going to do what I can to fill you in and not spoil anything. If you want spoilers, be sure to check the page regularly as I’ll be writing up walkthroughs to help tarnished souls get around this massive game. Speaking of massive, I don’t think I could quite explain how massive this open world RPG really is. Man, this will set a new standard for size and beauty. Not only is it massive, but well detailed and beautiful. Souls games have always been beautiful, but often restricted in how far you can travel. Souls game maps are tight enough to feel like a path has been partly carved out for you and it’s fairly easy to stay on track. Elden Ring definitely follows the spirit of Souls games, but it does it even better than any of the Souls title have. It is amazing. And if you’re by chance a Souls fan, you’ll likely agree. On one hand, this game has had some changes that seem to make things a little simpler than in the Souls games. You can jump with the cross button now. That’s a big deal to me because I am not a fan of holding the circle button to sprint and then pressing it again to jump. Furthermore, you can summon your steed to help navigate through the large map with speed and that includes a double jump on horseback. I didn’t realize just how useful the horse would be and it doesn’t hurt that you can still swing a sword while riding. You can still use multi-player to call in two other players to help aid you along the way for boss battles and even use a chat feature instead of just using gestures. The bosses in my opinion are much more difficult to take down this time around. It’s like Sekiro meets Dark Souls. Not everyone has the patience to play a title like this. Many will say the game is too difficult because they want to just run into every fight unprepared without any plan of attack. Then you have the seasoned player that claims that this game isn’t difficult at all and if you disagree, you must suck. Sorry pal, the expression you’re looking for is simply put as “Git Good!” … Read More
Dying Light 2 – Review
Ahhh! It’s great to be back in Harran! Am I right? Beautiful views, plenty of work and hordes of zombies! I tell you, if a zombie apocalypse ever comes to be within my lifetime, I’ll be just fine. Wink, wink! Anyway, for starters, if you haven’t played the first Dying Light, you’re missing out. Not only is Dying Light a great game, it helps you appreciate and understand Dying Light 2 much more than you would a newbie. So, if you haven’t played the original, I suggest you go pick it up and play it out! It’s worth it. Moving on, let’s go over the good and the bad until we reach my final score of the review. Graphics are pretty good on the PS5 and the game doesn’t seem to stutter and buffer when playing through and of course, there are no real loading times to contend with on current Gen consoles, so we’re happy there. Parkour games don’t always play well, and it’s far from my favorite type of playstyle, but Dying Light does it so well, I forget just how much I hated Mirrors Edge. The developers at Techland definitely offer great parkour gaming! The controls work great all the way around. Very responsive and the button layout works well without needing to make changes, at least for me. You’ll find that as you level up and upgrade your character, the controls become much more important than meets the eye, so pay attention to those upgrades! The storyline is alright, but not great. I thought the story in the first entry of the series was better, but that’s just my humble opinion. The story is just fine and as you play on, it does get better. I found myself becoming more emotionally invested half way through my playthrough. We may not always realize we are invested with characters we play, but it goes to show just how good a game can be. Sometimes you just don’t care about the characters or stories because a game is just that bad. Thankfully, that’s not the case here. The audio is also spot on. Sound effects and music together really make the setting come to life. There is some licensed music in the game, so if you’re streaming, check the audio settings and turn off licensed music to avoid any copyright issues you could run into. Upgrading your character isn’t the only upgradable thing in the game either. You can mod your weapons which is practically an upgrade in itself. You can also upgrade crafting recipes. If you have a recipe for medicine to heal yourself, you can upgrade that recipe and make the medicine more powerful and quicker to use. You can also upgrade your weapon mod recipes for even more powerful weapons all around. As far as the bad goes, I haven’t had too much trouble with bugs, but I have had my instances where I couldn’t complete a … Read More
Biomutant Review – The Price of Ambition
Time and time again, small teams have proven that they are capable of incredible gaming experiences. I’ve played countless titles made by a handful of people, or by a small group, and come away impressed. Of course, the balance here is between the ambition of the team, and what they can realistically accomplish. Biomutant, the first title from Experiment 101, published by THQ Nordic, is a title that has been in and out of the spotlight for several years, always garnering interest, but fraught with delays. Now, the full game is here, and I’ve played it on both PS4 and PS5 via backwards compatibility. How did this small team fare in their battle of ambition? Let’s find out. An Ambitious Action RPG that Struggles to Reach it’s Potential Biomutant makes a strong first impression with its CGI opener and a unique character creation system. Things like choosing a class, your primary fur colors, and base stats are all here, but the game also changes your appearance based on how much you lean towards things like intellenct or strength. The former will give you a big head, while the latter will shrink your head in favor a muscular build. Tying your appearance into your stats isn’t something I’ve seen since the days of Fable where your decisions between the good and evil path changed your outward appearance. Biomutant doesn’t take things this far, but the connection in the character creation offers a streamlined approach across your looks and your stats. While you are asked to pick a class, Biomutant allows you to refine your decisions as time goes on, so really the only permanent choice in the beginning are your base stats and your appearance. The rest can be molded as time goes on, which is a level of flexibility I appreciate in my RPGs. So, with your character made, you set out into the world. This is where the highs and lows of the experience become apparent. The first few hours of Biomutant aren’t incredibly inspiring due to inconsistent pacing and a litanty of tutorials. Flashbacks to your childhood are also prevalent and a little too long for the story they’re trying tell. I felt like these could have been cut or streamlined. Given the sheer number of systems at play here, I think the tutorials could have been given a little more room to breathe as well. From a story perspective, Biomutant presents a lush and vibrant world that suffered from an environmental apocalypse that wiped out humans, leaving mutated creatures to take over the planet. While things are regrowing and nature is returning to the world, the “Tree of Life” at the center of the map is threatened by creatures known as Worldeaters that threaten to snuff out this central aspect of the world. Among this, your character is the child of someone who once united the tribes of the world and perfected a style of combat called “Wung-Fu.” Your backstory is predictable, but sets the stage for … Read More
Black Legend Review – Glimmers in The Fog
Strategy RPG games have enjoyed a few breakout hits in recent years. Whether it’s the wild success of XCOM 2, or the surprisingly satisfying Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, perhaps my favorite thing is when the genre experiments with new and interesting settings. With Black Legend, turn-based tactics heads to the city of Grant, blanketed in a poisonous fog and riddled with cultists. An intriguing setup to be sure, but does this tale of mercenaries sent into a doomed city go toe-to-toe with the greats, or will the cultists win this battle in the end? Let’s find out. A Diamond in The Rough For Strategy Fans The setup for Black Legend is certainly enough to grab your attention. Playing as mercenaries sent by the king, you enter the town of Grant, which is covered in a thick fog and eerily quiet. An evil alchemist by the name of Mephisto has somehow conjured the fog, which drives people mad if they aren’t given an antidote. As a result, the townspeople all hide in their homes, not even opening their doors for fear of exposing themselves to the fog, or worse, running into the cultists that now roam the city. Throw in a literal bestiary for the various enemies and creatures that travel with them, and you have a great recipe for a horror-tinged setting. With the huge potential this premise offers, it’s a shame that the story itself isn’t given more of a focus. Cutscenes and conversations play out from the same camera angle as the gameplay, with voice acting that meanders between decent and far too stilted to be believable. One example of the latter is the way that certain explanations or tutorials are told to you via narration in addition to text. Having an in-game character talk about game mechanics or controls breaks the immersion for me. While it is possible to customize your character and recruit different party members, none of the options are particularly memorable and there’s no real development to them from a story standpoint. There are side quests and side conversations you can have with people through their doors, but the static delivery of the story really fails to capture the potential of the setting and the premise, which is a shame because there’s a lot of interesting details put into the enemies and the city of Grant itself. There’s also incentive to explore the city, and despite the lack of denizens, the city has a sense of presence thanks to some smart audio design and the uncertainty of when you’ll run into a group of cultists. Chests scattered around the various districts also give you incentive to poke around, but before we dive into the gameplay and mechanics, it’s worth noting that the game does not have a map of any kind. Instead, there are road signs throughout the city that will point you to other signs and can be used in conjunction with your compass at the top of the screen, but … Read More
Diablo II Resurrected Announced For PS5: Coming in 2021
Some surprise news came out of Blizzcon 2021’s online with the annoucement of a remastered Diablo II coming to PS5 in 2021! As someone who grew up playing the original on PC, this is huge, and I knew immediately that I had to seek out more information. While details are here, some things like the release date are still vague (some time in 2021). Even so, let’s talk about what we do know and find out what the new Diablo II Ressurected has in store for fans of the original! Diablo II, fully remastered, coming to PS5 in 2021 When I think of classic dungeon crawlers, I think of Diablo II. Growing up with a PC that couldn’t handle some of the more cutting-edge stuff, the 2D approach this game had made it easy to play on a potato, but the rich art and satisfying gameplay loop kept me coming back for more. Oh, and let’s not forget about those cinematics. The originals may not have aged as well as I remembered, but we have news about everything straight from Blizzard themselves. For starters, let’s look at the announcement trailer: It’s clear from the trailer that the updated 3D graphics are a big step without sacrificing the style of the original. One thing Blizzard has already confirmed though, is that you can toggle between the new and old graphics if you prefer the original look. The bonus, of course, is that you can run it more seamlessly on modern machines either way. With PC and consoles confirmed, one thing that I immediately thought about were those old cinematics. It’s not uncommon for remasteres to have this gorgeous gameplay but then use these old, low-res cutscenes. Thankfully, Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo Ressurected will actually feature new cinematics with the latest CGI technology. These are made to be shot-by-shot remasters of the original, so they should have that same level of shock and awe we all remember, but look much better than the originals. Interestingly, Blizzard also confirmed that cross-progression is in, and that this remaster includes the Lord of Destruction expansion. My experience with cross-progression is limited to Hades on PC and Switch, but I will say that being able to move your save between each platform is going to be great for people who want to have the option. Stay Tuned for More Details! Whether you’re a fan of the original Diablo II, or you’re joining the craze now, I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed. If you haven’t played Diablo III, you can start there to get a taste of what’s coming, but Diablo II was the pinnacle of the genre and arguably stil is to this day. Are you an old school fan like me? Let us know what you think about Diablo II Resurrected in the comments! Article by – Bradley Ramsey Insert date – 2/19/2020
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