Diablo 4.
I played like 10 hours, then realized it was really fucking boring. It felt soulless. Uninteresting.
I actually dozed off at my computer playing D4, something about the mindlessness of it just lulls me to sleep.
Animal Crossing is my favorite sleepy time game, but Diablo gets me nodding off like it’s downtown Kensington
“Mario is Missing” for the SNES.
I remember opening the Sears catalog and seeing what must be the sequel to Super Mario World. I shovelled driveways and busted open my piggy bank - it was a full price Nintendo game and I had to have it.
I started my subscription to Nintendo Power after that…
Oh I feel your pain.
I was in a video rental store, saw “Mario is Missing”, and like you assumed it was a sequel to “Super Mario World”.
Got home to play it and was just flabbergasted. I don’t think I played for more than an hour before complaining to my parents. Luckily they’re nice people and they had more errands to run that day. So back out we go, back to the video store we end up, time for me to pick a new game to rent.
Oh, “Mario’s Time Machine”, now that’s a Mario sequel guaranteed to be fun.
Mario and I were not on good terms for a long while after that.
(For those not in the know, “Mario is Missing” in an educational Mario game about geography, think Carmen Sandeigo but not fun. “Mario’s Time Machine” is basically the same game, but time.)
Vermintide 2 Just not my kind of gameplay.
Elden Ring.
Waited all year until it was on sale as I thought it might not be my cup of tea, tried not to let my prejudice get the better of me but felt it was such a drag I had to put it down.
It was recommended to me as I like Zelda but it couldn’t be further from the things I like about it: innovation, fluid gameplay, freedom, puzzles, multiple ways to tackle enemies.
I don’t think it’s the difficulty as I play lots of roguelike and bullet hell games. My main gripe is the clunkiness of the combat to the point it’s unfair. Like you don’t really stand a chance through reactions alone, you have to learn the patterns and hitboxes of enemies so that you know in advance when to react.
Also I kept hearing how good the graphics are but I think they’re kinda average although the actual art style is quite nice.
Any suggestions on how I might enjoy it would be much appreciated as I haven’t got very far.
Whoever thought you might like Elden Ring because you like Zelda is not a true friend. There’s really not much similar with the gameplay loop.
You’re right that the gameplay is more about learning and recognizing patterns of enemies and adjusting to them so if that doesn’t appeal to you you’re probably not going to like it. With that being said though, your first soulslike is always the hardest and if you stick with it they are very rewarding to play once you know what to expect.
Cheers, probably just not for me then.
It sounds like you probably had the wrong expectations of what the game was going in. These games can be frustrating under the best of circumstances, but are very much “tough but fair.”
If you choose to give it another shot, look up a build. The weapon scaling system is a little obtuse and if you’re pumping levels ups into str and using a dex weapon you’ll do no damage. Whatever you do, put a lot of points into Vigor. Get it to 40 at least after you have the stats to equip your weapon to increase your health because defense is mostly cosmetic in these games. Other than that, you get i-frames on your roll and the game rewards aggressive play so learn to roll into attacks and not away if you’re not using a shield.
I expected it to be difficult with a possibility of not enjoying it but seemed pretty popular so thought I’d give it a go.
Will give your suggestions a shot but I find everything about it obtuse to be honest. To me good game design lowers you gently into mastering the controls and ramping up difficulty, not just chucking you in at the deep end with confusing menus so it’s on the player to look everything up.
