The First Berserker: Khazan - Reviews Thread

GHG said:
Just done a bit more digging and it does have randomised loot, but it's less frequent and is apparently managed better than it is in Nioh.

Not a deal-breaker for me personally though since I never minded that aspect of the Nioh games.
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I liked it until I didn't and I don't blame it on Nioh as they just incorporated what Diablo made popular and I like Nioh/Nioh 2 a bunch. I think I'm just over the concept of randomized loot. That's a "me thing" and no a problem with the game.
 
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S0ULZB0URNE said:
78/100 isn't purchase worthy.
I need to try the demo for my final decision.
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Soulz, it's 80 on both MC and OP, not that it matters since I've found that games (the more commercial ones especially ) scoring above 80/85/90 are usually overinflated and overhyped for many reasons.

Basically, high 70s low 80s, always IMO, are more "honest" scores*

* And this is why I never "got" all the fighting and back and forth in review threads like the user's life depends on it.
 
Giallo Corsa said:
Soulz, it's 80 on both MC and OP, not that it matters since I've found that games (the more commercial ones especially ) scoring above 80/85/90 are usually overinflated and overhyped for many reasons.

Basically, high 70s low 80s, always IMO, are more "honest" scores*

* And this is why I never "got" all the fighting and back and forth in review threads like the user's life depends on it.
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It was 78/100 when I checked.
It went up in score which is great.

Below 80 is a miss unless I can play it myself.
80 is a hit or miss and 90+ never steers me wrong.
 
Nice reviews, but combat feedback from enemies and weapons was really lackluster, so guess i wont bother until deep discount
 
Giallo Corsa said:
Soulz, it's 80 on both MC and OP, not that it matters since I've found that games (the more commercial ones especially ) scoring above 80/85/90 are usually overinflated and overhyped for many reasons.

Basically, high 70s low 80s, always IMO, are more "honest" scores*

* And this is why I never "got" all the fighting and back and forth in review threads like the user's life depends on it.
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Oh yea, I also played a game recently in that MC score range and was also praised by fighting cowboy with a 9/10. Had a blast :) But apparently its an anomaly for that one.

Gonna have to play the demo on this. I'm glad its more leaning towards Sekiro in combat flow than souls.
 
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Game is a ton of fun. The difficulty is no joke, tho. Don't buy unless you are content on getting your skull kicked in. The combat plays great

There are summons, but I am trying not to use them. And it is cool that you gain XP when you lose to a boss. I was stuck for a good hour on the 3rd main boss, but was able to level up 6-7 levels just by failing a bunch. Very cool
 
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Based on demo I wasn't gonna day one this at all. But after hearing it's insanely difficult, as per XboxEra, yeah, not for me. I just don't have the patience for that shit anymore. Besides, I still haven't copped Elden Ring, I can't justify getting this before that.
 
This is one of those games I really want to play no matter what review scores it get. I really like the atmosphere of the game. . but... too many games in my backlog and I just cant justify another full-price game that wont be playing right now.

Busy with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth still :/

Stafford said:
Based on demo I wasn't gonna day one this at all. But after hearing it's insanely difficult, as per XboxEra, yeah, not for me. I just don't have the patience for that shit anymore. Besides, I still haven't copped Elden Ring, I can't justify getting this before that.
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oh ? hard ? I thought its an action game not souls like... ok i am out -_-
 
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Stafford said:
Based on demo I wasn't gonna day one this at all. But after hearing it's insanely difficult, as per XboxEra, yeah, not for me. I just don't have the patience for that shit anymore. Besides, I still haven't copped Elden Ring, I can't justify getting this before that.
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The Steam reviews I saw were praising the fact it has an easy mode.
 
Just played through the demo on PS5 this evening. Gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with the combat in this game. FightingCowboy wasn't kidding about the comparisons to Sekiro.
 
The developers should have just given the options as normal and hard when it comes to difficulty. I understand why they didn't. The game has an incredible combat system, but it only really starts to click when you are forced to learn all the games mechanics. If the game is too easy, I don't think it would be nearly as enjoyable for a lot of players

I'm like 7 hours in and I'm really enjoying it. I usually dislike boss fights in most souls games, but the variety of ways to approach each boss is amazing. Level design could be better, but that is my only real criticism

Loot is very streamlined. It's nowhere near as convoluted as Nioh
 
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The art style is neat. The main character looks cool. The setting seems dark and interesting. But the gameplay in the demo just wasn't compelling enough for me to buy. Pretty much another souls game, with a few minor tweaks. I'm sure I'll get it on sale at some point.
 
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Mid 70s is more or less what I expected after playing the demo.

I can't say I hated it, but I was also definitely not impressed to the point of wanting to fork money to play the final game as soon as possible.
The art overall stroke me as mediocre/inconsistent and I really don't like that type of looting/itemization.
 
Looks dope and I thought the demo was cool. I hope it has a lot of success. Gonna have to pass for a while, my backlog is insane.
 
How's the story so far? I usually completely avoid spoiler going so far as to mute audio when seeing gameplay trailers.
Its seems like its a revenge story my guess?
 
I bought the version to play early. I played about 45 minutes. I am having a lot of fun with it. I really like breaking the guard of larger enemies, the charge attack is great, and the weapon reflect is a lot of fun.

The story is serviceable. I'm not really in it for the plot as much as the gameplay.
 
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I played the demo. Seems decent but nothing I'd pay full price for. The run animation looks like it doesn't match the speed he moves across the ground at. I found the first boss a bit annoying too with the 1-shot frost breath thing.
Oh and I hate this 'advanced access' bullshit.
 
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coachmcguirk91 said:
The developers should have just given the options as normal and hard when it comes to difficulty. I understand why they didn't. The game has an incredible combat system, but it only really starts to click when you are forced to learn all the games mechanics. If the game is too easy, I don't think it would be nearly as enjoyable for a lot of players

I'm like 7 hours in and I'm really enjoying it. I usually dislike boss fights in most souls games, but the variety of ways to approach each boss is amazing. Level design could be better, but that is my only real criticism

Loot is very streamlined. It's nowhere near as convoluted as Nioh
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I'm still dual wielding dumping stats in Willpower to boost damage. Weapon set boosts are kinda neat. It's odd cause dual wielding first scale is Willpower (B) then it's Strength (C). I had my agility at a B and then I put a single point in strength and got it back to A. I'm not sure. Does Attribute Resistance change much or are we looking at a Souls instance where scaling defense stats doesn't do much compared to armor requirements.
 
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So… I'm roughly 40% of the way thru. I think it's more than serviceable, and the combat is good. But the setting is boring to me so far. It's missing that From Soft touch. The environments are uninteresting and repetitive. The enemies aren't really creepy or engaging. It all just feels very generic.
 
Northeastmonk said:
I'm still dual wielding dumping stats in Willpower to boost damage. Weapon set boosts are kinda neat. It's odd cause dual wielding first scale is Willpower (B) then it's Strength (C). I had my agility at a B and then I put a single point in strength and got it back to A. I'm not sure. Does Attribute Resistance change much or are we looking at a Souls instance where scaling defense stats doesn't do much compared to armor requirements.
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I'm honestly not sure. I don't go too deep in the weeds with stats and armor. I'm also dual wielding and I'm just pumping Willpower, Endurance, and Vitality pretty much equally. If you have high agility get the skill point that allows more invincibility frames when dodging with a high agility. That's my current build
 
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Northeastmonk said:
I'm still dual wielding dumping stats in Willpower to boost damage. Weapon set boosts are kinda neat. It's odd cause dual wielding first scale is Willpower (B) then it's Strength (C). I had my agility at a B and then I put a single point in strength and got it back to A. I'm not sure. Does Attribute Resistance change much or are we looking at a Souls instance where scaling defense stats doesn't do much compared to armor requirements.
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How is the exhaustion mechanic? They did tweak it a lot between the beta and the demo, do you feel like you lose control over your character a lot when gettig hit?
 
Bartski said:
that's astualy great news for me, as the impression I got from earlier builds was endless identical color coded loot trash with minor stat boosts.

In asap!
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Here's the thing: Nioh/Nioh2/Wo Long and FFO use the gear/build grind to drive replayability. The appeal is all about getting stronger, you explore systems as opposed to the world. Obviously FROM bias much more the other way, and as a result we get "fashion souls" and situations like Elden Ring where everyone uses basically the same weapons once upgraded to max rank.

Based on Fextralife's review, it sounds like they've binned the system grind, but not fully committed to the kind of intricate world and level design in return. The result being the a Demon's Style hub leading off to Nioh-like sub stages containing mostly simple levels up until near the end of the story.

That sounds like... fun, while it lasts. A bit on the fence about it to be honest.
 
Bartski said:
How is the exhaustion mechanic? They did tweak it a lot between the beta and the demo, do you feel like you lose control over your character a lot when gettig hit?
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I didn't play the demo.
Not really? I guess I don't notice it beyond what other games do with stagger. I think it has way better stagger than The Surge or Code Vein. If that helps. I can break attacks but if it's a heavy or charged attack it'll go right through my attacks. It really depends. I was farming the ape for a while and the bears felt fine. I fought and beat the yeti boss. It feels like the parry is exactly like Sekiro's timing. Parrying works and if you didn't parry you probably performed an action too late. You also have another perfect parry, can't remember the name of it but it's R1 + O. How far did the demo go?
 
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If anyone's on PC I just did some latency testing on the demo to get the most responsive controls. This is with M/KB but I'm sure it affects a gamepad as well.
The lowest latency comes from turning off Vsync, no framerate cap, Reflex ON (boost also seems to possibly lower it very slightly more) no frame gen and with DLSS on.

I was getting around 3-5ms of latency at around 300 FPS from input to photon which seems very low.

Capped it at 175 FPS and it's still around 7ms.
 
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Devs finally learning how to make good souls like after having a big period were it seemed only FromSoft could do them (other than maybe Nioh?), so good to see!
 
Bartski said:
How is the exhaustion mechanic? They did tweak it a lot between the beta and the demo, do you feel like you lose control over your character a lot when gettig hit?
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Did you notice during the Yeti fight that you could attack him when he does the ice blast, but you'll start losing life is say you're caught the in the hit detection of the blast? I could easily take damage when attack enemies. It feels like it makes sense. Maybe a preview video might show it off better.

Obviously if you run out of stamina or they deplete your bar you're stunned. I thought it was forgiving during the yeti boss when I had to heal.

I'd say it's great if you want a good Souls clone for the next couple weeks.
 
Beat the demo and picked it up.

The level design is atrocious as is regular enemy design so far. Plus the environments are butt fucking ugly. Has the same issues of Nioh games.

But I'm desperate to play something fun and challenging. The bosses so far have been easy by souls game standards.

Will continue on. Curious what everyone is using for their main weapon choice? I'm between dual or the spear. Leaning towards spear.
 
Buggy Loop said:
Oh yea, I also played a game recently in that MC score range and was also praised by fighting cowboy with a 9/10. Had a blast :) But apparently its an anomaly for that one.

Gonna have to play the demo on this. I'm glad its more leaning towards Sekiro in combat flow than souls.
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Which game was that?
 
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