Ex Nihilo

Vampyr is developer DontNod’s take on the vampire subgenre of RPGs. While DontNod nails quite a lot from combat to its morality system, they take some missteps in writing and exploration that dulls the experience.  Combat is slow, but tense. Jonathan has access to a number of pistols, shotguns, bludgeons, stakes, and swords to slay his vampiric brethren and those who hunt them.. Enemies are aggressive and dodging, healing, and counters are important to get them off your back in any encounter. Even basic enemies encountered in the overworld can give Jonathan a challenge, with some being even more powerful than a few of the boss creatures in the game. Some enemies will try to exploit the player’s vampiric weakness to fire and holy relics and will not wait their turn to attack--with some enemy types dedicated to swarming and overwhelming Jonathan.  There are two main attack buttons, a regular attack and a special attack button. While wielding one handed weapons, those two bu...

When I first heard of The Outer Worlds during the 2018 Video Game Awards ("VGAs"), I was skeptical to say the least. While Obsidian Entertainment had some powerhouse development staff that worked on the original two Fallout  games and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords ("KOTOR 2") , they also had a had a somewhat troubled track record.   KOTOR 2 and Fallout: New Vegas  were notorious for their bugs and Obsidian's last attempt at a big shooter/RPG,  Alpha Protocol  was critically slammed. The numerous game play demonstrations following the announcement of The Outer Worlds , did little to assuage my skepticism. From a distance, this game seems like nothing more than a half-hearted attempt to ape modern Fallout  titles, but actually playing  the game made me realize that The Outer Worlds  is one of the most compelling RPG experiences in recent memory. It should be no surprise that  The Outer Worlds  takes cues f...