Into The Breach - Key's Gaming Journal

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Cyberpunk 2077

This is going to be a really interesting game to cover here because we're basically going to talk about two different versions of the same game. If you didn't know, CDPR released Cyberpunk 2077 initially in a really bad state. NPC's didn't work properly, graphically while really good, it didn't help that the graphics would break from time to time. You know how it goes, game comes out, game is not great, find out game was rushed. It's a common theme. However, what isn't common is for that very same game to get a complete overhaul. And my god the difference between what the game was and what the game is now is breathtaking in a way, and I'm going to explain why:

I was one of the really excited gamers that picked up Cyberpunk 2077 on release, and while at first, I was not really following the criticisms about the game, they slowly started to show themselves as I got further and further into my playthrough. The gunplay felt clunky and heavy at parts, and simply traversing the city of Night City felt more like a chore than a leisure. And the controls just overall did not feel good, and it sort of felt out of place for a game like Cyberpunk 2077. With all the other issues following behind it, Cyberpunk 2077 for a while was thrown into obscurity and sort of became a meme of itself. This is not to say that Cyberpunk 2077 had no redeeming qualities on launch, but like I said before, the issues started to pile up and less and less enjoyment was being had when I played. So I decided to turn off the game for a while and focus on other things.

Then...sort of out of nowhere, we get an enormous expansion of Phantom Liberty (which I plan to check out). It adds a completely new story aside from your adventures in Night City. However, in my opinion, the base game is where I think got the most fixes. And I don't mean just fixes, I mean a complete overhaul of everything in the game. Cyberpunk 2077 pre-Phantom Liberty and pre patch, again while good, just wasn't the vision of Cyberpunk 2077 that even CDPR wanted to present. I can safely say with having about 10 hours into the new patch, Cyberpunk 2077 is indeed the game that I expected from CDPR from day 1. But that's the thing though and I think it's even worth having a separate conversation about: are we to just assume that developers will eventually put out the game they had a vision for? And if so, as consumers, should we allow developers to release games in an unfinished state, or should there be an entire rework on how video game deadlines work. I understand that companies need to make their money and keep investors happy, but it feels like when you put out an unfinished game, the feedback sort of goes against those ideals and sometimes, the team behind it either spirals into obscurity or simply relieves itself of duties for any future titles *cough* Gollum *cough*. I don't really have a solid answer for this as I don't think it's going to stop any time soon in regard to putting out games too fast. However, I do think what is happening is that a lot of companies are starting to realize the negatives that comes with rushing a team behind a game that people are excited about. So, we're seeing progress, but I just wish there was more so that we didn't constantly have to have the conversation of whether or not we are treating developers right. Hell, if you're a developer and you aren't being treated right, I won't stop you from making a shitty game. But, at the same time, I just won't play the game.

Aside from that little rant, I do really think CDPR turned Cyberpunk 2077 around. I didn't really think it was going to happen, and I know that's not the most out there opinion regarding this topic.  However, I got to say, I'm impressed with CDPR for not only fixing the problems, or at least making better, that the initial release had, but on top of that, creating an entire separate story that falls on top of the original game. Sort of a "sorry we messed up, here have this!" sort of thing. And hell yeah I'll take it.

Throwing this in as a little joke, but I installed Starfield yesterday and I wanted to see if I could continue where I left off, but...once I jumped into Cyberpunk 2077 afterwards, I honestly found it really difficult to go back to Starfield. Not that Starfield is bad in any way, hell it's still up there for my game of the year. But Cyberpunk 2077 does so many things really well that I wish were in Starfield, and honestly feels really weird to play both next to each other. Starfield has some great qualities and does a lot of things really well. It just seems to me that Cyberpunk 2077 also does those things really well and also adds more things that make it even better. To me, Starfield is a really good starting point for a space RPG by Bethesda, but they've got the work cut out for them if they think it's going to be enough to standout against other big releases.

As a side note: I know it's not fair to judge both Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 next to each other given that both games released years apart. I would say that it sort of furthers the point that I'm talking about - Starfield was released in 2023, and Cyberpunk 2077 was released in 2020. If you never told me which game came out at which time, I would be shocked to hear that it wasn't the opposite. Starfield to me plays like a game that was released in 2020, and Cyberpunk 2077 in its current state plays like a game released either this year or years after. It is so good.

When it comes to gaming, and this is something I have mentioned before, I try to be fair. I don't go into a game looking for obvious issues to talk about, and perhaps that allows me to enjoy games a bit more. On the contrary, it's really tough to say one game is better than the other when it so simply is not true. Again, I want to reiterate that I do not think Starfield is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. I love it dearly, but it has so much more potential that I was hoping to see on release. Cyberpunk 2077 was still a decent game on launch despite it's issues, but man...if you haven't even jumped into Night City or put off Cyberpunk 2077 because of the news articles and controversies, I urge you to play it now.

It's been an absolute joy going through the missions and side jobs, and once I do that, I'll be jumping right into the Phantom Liberty expansion.

A solid game and would honestly be my game of the year this year had the original game not been released back in 2020. But maybe we'll make an exception. 

[Guybrush]

Glad you're enjoying Starfield so much! I am getting to tte point where I'd like to get finished with it so I can move on to other things 😅 but I am having a lot of fun still. I just did the crimson fleet quest and an now back on track getting more artifacts.. and just got my first power. I kinda missed that aspect from Skyrim, but it was there all along. I just had to play more.

About cassette beasts, I've actually picked that up before because I thought maybe me and my daughter could play it together. She loves Pokemon. We haven't gotten past the tutorial still, though. I think.

I also played Dicey Dungeons and Floppy Knights, though I didn't get too far in Floppy.

[.]

The crimson fleet quest is really well written imo. I kind of felt for the leader sometimes because he had his moments that were pretty great. Enjoy it man, I got into new game plus then kind of stopped but I'll go back from time to time. Cyberpunk is taking up my time right now and the new dead space remake just got put on game pass soooooo

[Guybrush]

Hey, didn't notice your Cyberpunk writeup earlier. Guess I was a bit quick.

I bought Cyberpunk when it came out and actually got a Stadia deal. It was great value; a Chromecast ultra with a controller and of course the game.

I was fortunate too because I think Stadia had possibly the best experience of Cyberpunk at the time. The game occasionally seemed a little thin with content (like no GTA-like police response), but the stuff that was there was pretty great. Not liking to play FPS shooters with a controller, I went for a melee build with those claws so you can pounce and.. it was fun.

After Stadia went to shit, they refunded my game and so now if I pick it up again, I'll be back to square one. That might not be so bad, though.

[Lexi Darling]

I watched the mister play a good chunk of Cyberpunk earlier this year/maybe late last year so I assume he wasn't playing on the recent update. Seemed like one of those modern games where I would probably get too distracted by sidequests and little tangents. ADHD doesn't mix well with big modern games like that, haha.

But I have been itching to play more games lately so I'll be following this journal for sure.

[.]

There will be a lot of discussion coming from me in the coming weeks about game of the year etc so it's the perfect time to tune in!

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Anvil: Vault Breakers

I've been eyeing this game for quite some time as it's been on Xbox Game Pass for what feels like forever. And from what I can gather, this game is still in its alpha/beta/early access stages. Not that that is necessarily indicative of quality. I'd say it doesn't really have much of an effect unless the game is just glaringly awful. I gotta say though, for a game that is seemingly still being worked on, there is a lot of promise here.

I don't even really know what I expected going into this seeing as all I really know about it is the cover art from Game Pass. Just never took the plunge to install it and give it a shot and boy oh boy do I wish I had jumped in sooner. The best way that I can describe this game without sounding too out of this world is diablo with guns. You basically go through stage-by-stage missions where each planet has its own difficulties and upgrades you can find. There are bosses as well and honestly, I'd say the bosses are tough but fair. I haven't really had any moments where I felt the bosses were unfair, despite what some of the reviews say. They're the perfect amount of difficulty in my opinion. And the reason I describe this as diablo with guns is...well, it feels like diablo with guns. What more can I say. The thing I did not expect is how much it feels like a roguelike on top of all this. The upgrades and weapons you find throughout your missions seem cool and I've already found a few overpowered builds that I've been using a lot. So, I suppose knowing that I could throw games like Hades and Binding of Isaac into the mix of how this game feels to play overall.

The one thing I should mention though is that this game does have a gameplay loop that others may find somewhat repetitive and boring, but honestly, those are some of my favorite games. You do go through the same planets a lot and although you do tackle the same missions from time to time, because the game gives you different upgrades and builds to mess around with, this hardly feels like a negative to me personally, but I figured it was worth mentioning. Anvil doesn't do too much out of the ballpark in regard to the gameplay and loop, but it stays exciting, and I think I spent close to 10 hours playing it. And I just started playing it yesterday, so while this game may not be for everybody, it's definitely for me.

It's on Xbox Game Pass so you really don't have much to lose. And, it looks like it's multiplayer so I'm gonna get some people together and take on some missions. Gonna be a blast!

[.]

As much as I would like to say I'm thrilled with what I wrote about Diablo IV during my initial thoughts on the new season, I'm not. It's not to say that I disagree with anything that I said. It's more-so I don't think I went into the new season in the way that I wanted to. Yes, Necromancer is a really fun class and I can see why a lot of people would put it as their favorites. For me, I traditionally like to go with a class that carries a little bit more 'unf' if you know what I mean. Over the many hours and various characters that I've made during my time with Diablo IV, I have to say that it's come down to two classes that have really taken my attention in regard to their playstyle and general feel of how they work and the abilities that come with leveling them up. Druid and Sorcerer. While I started my first experience with Diablo IV as a rogue, I found that later on in the game, I was going for something that was quite honestly a little bit easier on the hands. Rogue can get really overpowered as you get to later levels, but at the expense of potential carpel tunnel, I had to move onto something else. I then tried sorcerer the first time and absolutely loved every second of it, and since then I've tried out the other classes.

I've been playing the new season titled 'Season of Blood' since it came out, and while I've taken breaks here and there, I've generally been having a good time, if not a great time with this new season. We've talked about before how there have been a few roadblocks that Blizzard had to smooth out since Diablo IV came into early access, and while the first season wasn't up to par with what most players wanted, it seems that season 2 is bringing people back in, me included. And man oh man, playing as a sorcerer in this version of Diablo IV has been nothing but an exciting ride through and through. I didn't expect to literally sit and play for nearly 10 hours when I jumped in yesterday, but I honestly could not stop playing.

Generally, in Diablo games the sorcerer class is usually seen as the fun class because of the different kinds of spells you can have. Shock, fire, earth, etc. I've always really enjoyed the shock based skills because I think both mechanically and graphically, they're the most fun. You can see in the image above that there are multiple shocks floating around the screen. That is due to multiple perks I currently have on this character that just fills the screen with shocking effects. And lemme tell ya, it's amazing every time. I feel so powerful and while I have died a few times to some of the new bosses, I generally feel pretty good strength wise as I level up. The itemization helps with that too. Instead of constantly finding loot that doesn't fit my build that well, I've been lucky enough to find nothing but armor pieces and jewelry that have only helped the build that I've setup. Below you're going to see a preview of just what this build can do. This was taken yesterday during my first day as the sorcerer class in this new season. You can just see that it truly is a sight to behold.

While I still agree with what I said previously about season 2 in that it feels like Diablo IV is where it should have been on launch post early access, I do also think that if you have had reservations about Diablo IV or were just simply too burned by season 1 being as mediocre as it was, I'd strongly suggest jumping in right now during this season because I honestly haven't had this much fun in Diablo IV since early access. Everything feels more refined and while I think there is still a bunch of work to be done to get to the point that it needs to be, I think Blizzard are taking a lot of the right steps to get to that point. Diablo IV as it is right now is definitely worth playing and that wasn't something I was too comfortable with saying over the past few months. But, if they continue this trajectory, we could see Diablo IV getting back to where it was during early access. When people were having the most fun.

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I decided that on top of talking about season 2 of Diablo IV, I wanted to also do a sort of deep dive into my character. Moreso this is just an overview of the skills I've chosen to use and what those respective skills do. Unfortunately, I did not get a screenshot of the information for Unstable Currents, so I will be providing information regarding what that particular skill does:


Arc Lash


Chain Lightning


Blizzard


Teleport


Lightning Spear


Unstable Currents
Cooldown: 70 Seconds
Lightning surges within you for 10 seconds. Whenever you cast a Shock Skill, a random Core, Conjuration, or Master Shock Skill is also cast


Overflowing Energy

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Here's the scoop - I've been playing nothing but Diablo IV for the past few days and I'm having an absolute blast. If you've read my other posts pertaining to either Diablo IV or the new seasonal content, you'll know that I've been pretty positive throughout and haven't really run into any issues that has caused me to either rage quit or what have you. In fact, I've actually had many moments where I'm sort of feeling what I felt when I jumped into Diablo IV during the early access beta. With a few kinks to workout with the new seasonal content and the other changes, I honestly feel like Diablo IV is in a trajectory to be one of the best games of the year. They just have to continue to keep putting out QOL changes as well as making the game feel fun as opposed to feeling grindy and boring.

There is something in Diablo IV that I have yet to be able to do. In fact, there are several things that I have yet to do despite having played as long as I have. Killing Uber Lilith and getting my character to level 100. I've gotten a few characters in the 70's but I've never gone past that for one reason or another. I think I honestly feel like this current build that I have going is going to take me all the way to where I want to go. Which is exciting because not only is it cool that I'll be able to experience that stuff, but I'll also finally have a character at level 100 that will absolutely steam roll anything that crosses its path. It's definitely one of the strongest builds I've ever had.

I figured I'd take this time to provide an update on both my character and my progress through the season and how I'm feeling in regard to my time in Diablo IV currently. I'm pleased to say that having now finished the main campaign of Season of Blood, I would 100% recommend those that haven't done so, jump in and experience it. It's not the most amazing set of quests out there, but for a seasonal questline with different rewards and new abilities to unlock, I'd say you should definitely experience it. I'm going to keep that part mostly brief because the main reason I'm here is to give an overview of my current build and where I see this build going in the near future:


Name: Suhh
Class: Sorcerer
Element: Shock/Frost
Level: 70
Current Tier: IV (Torment)

Stats:
Strength: 223
Intelligence: 412
Willpower: 312
Dexterity: 296

Attack Power: 2341
Armor: 4195
Life: 3795

Vampiric Powers (Season of Blood)
Domination - You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are stunned, immobilized, frozen or feared. If they're also injured and not an elite, they're instantly killed
Undying - Casting skills heals you for 3% life. Double this bonus while below 50% life
Ravenous - Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your attack speed by 40% of your total movement speed for 6 seconds
Hemomancy - Your attacks deal 80% of your maximum life as physical damage to nearby enemies. This can only occur once every 4 seconds. You heal for 1% of your maximum life for each enemy damaged this way
Call Familiar - Casting a mastery, weapon mastery, macabre, wrath, or imbuement skill calls a bat ally to attack nearby enemies, dealing 80% physical damage with a 30% chance to stun.

[.]

2023 Game of the Year Nominees Have Been Announced! Here Are My Votes! (Winners Announced December 7th)

Game of the Year: Baldur's Gate 3.
Nominees: Alan Wake 2 | Baldur's Gate 3 | Marve's Spider-Man 2 | Resident Evil 4 | Super Mario Bros. Wonder | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Without question the only game among this list that truly deserves a spot for Game of the Year. Larian Studios has proven time and time again that they know what they're doing when it comes to roleplaying games, and Baldur's Gate 3 is just another extension of that.

Best Game Direction: Super Mario Bros. Wonder.
Nominees: Alan Wake 2 | Baldur's Gate 3 | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | Super Mario Bros. Wonder | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I'm not trying to vote for Baldur's Gate 3 for every category that it is nominated for, so to keep things interesting and fresh, I'm going to go with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Tears of the Kingdom in my opinion didn't do much to differ it from it's predecessor and while I have not played Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2, I feel like those may suffer the same fate. Super Mario Bros. Wonder, to me, feels like a refreshing take on the 2D platformer genre.

Best Narrative: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Nominees: Alan Wake 2 | Baldur's Gate 3 | Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty | Final Fantasy XVI | Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Because I have little to not experience with several of the nominees on this list, I've chosen Cyberpunk 2077. As far as storytelling goes, I really think Cyberpunk has a nice mesh of all the things that make storytelling great, in a grim yet glamorous setting. Certainly worth your time if you haven't checked out Cyberpunk 2077 since launch.

Best Art Direction: Lies of P
Nominees: Alan Wake 2 | Hi-Fi Rush | Lies of P | Super Mario Bros. Wonder | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Without question, Lies of P is taking this one for me. Mixing together the setting much like Bloodborne with the story of Pinocchio is sincerely something I have wanted for so so long and the way it is done in Lies of P is simply fantastic. One of the best games to release this year, for sure.

Best Score and Music: Final Fantasy XVI, Composer: Masayoshi Soken
Nominees: Alan Wake 2, Composer: Petri Alanko | Baldur's Gate 3, Composer: Borislav Slavov | Final Fantasy XVI, Composer: Masayoshi Soken | Hi-Fi Rush, Audio Director: Shuichi Kobori | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Composer: Nintendo Sound Team
The vote I'm placing for music is solely based on familiarity of the composer, and I haven't really been blown away by music in the same way I have when I listen to Soken music. Final Fantasy XVI is certainly one of the best in the series, and the music is no doubt some of the best the series has ever seen.

Best Audio Design: Dead Space
Nominees: Alan Wake 2 | Dead Space | Hi-Fi Rush | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | Resident Evil 4
Dead Space takes this one, hands down. One of the most horrifyingly immersive experiences I've ever had with a game, and the remaster is just a better version of that.

Best Performance: Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Nominees: Ben Starr, Final Fantasy XVI | Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor | Idris Elba, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty | Melanie Liburd, Alan Wake 2 | Neil Newbon, Baldur's Gate 3 | Yuri Lowenthal, Marvel's Spider-Man 2
I love Star Wars and both Fallen Order and Survivor are two of my favorite Star Wars games of all time, simply because I find Cameron Monaghan's performance of Cal to be one of the best. They say he's supposed to become canon Star Wars and that excites me greatly.

Innovation In Accessibility: No Vote
Nominees: Diablo IV | Forza Motorsport | Hi-Fi Rush | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | Mortal Kombat 1 | Street Fighter 6
Probably the only category or maybe one of the few that I won't be casting a vote for simply due to ignorance. The only game I have actually spent any time in among this list is Diablo IV so it wouldn't be fair for me to vote against the others without playing at least one or two more of the ones in this category.

Games For Impact: No Vote
Nominees: A Space For The Unbound | Chants of Sennaar | Goodbye Volcano High | Tchia | Terra Nil | Venba
I have 0 experience with any of these games so I am not voting in this category as well

Best Ongoing: Fortnite
Nominees: Apex Legends | Cyberpunk 2077 | Final Fantasy XIV | Fortnite | Genshin Impact
I'll be quite honest, several of these games deserve the win for this one. If we're going solely on longevity and has evolved over time and has managed to keep it's footing in the game industry while also keeping its consumers happy, I'l vote for Fortnite easily.

Best Community Support: No Man's Sky
Nominees: Baldur's Gate 3 | Cyberpunk 2077 | Destiny 2 | Final Fantasy XIV | No Man's Sky
Once again, several of these nominees deserve the win in my opinion but I have to go with No Man's Sky on this one. One of the biggest turnarounds in gaming history while also keeping up with updates and the game simply continues to get better and better as time goes on.

Best Independent Game: Dave The Diver
Nominees: Cocoon | Dave The Diver | Dredge | Sea of Stars | Viewfinder
Some truly quality games in this category. All of them are great actually. Can't really say a negative thing about any of them if i'm quite honest so this is just my personal take. Dave The Diver gets the vote. But Dredge is a close 2nd with Sea of Stars coming in 3rd.

Best Debut Indie Game: Viewfinder
Nominees: Cocoon | Dredge | Pizza Tower | Venba | Viewfinder
Not a bad game amongst this list as well, but as far as creativity and originality goes, Viewfinder takes this one, easy.

Best Mobile Game: No Vote
Nominees: Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis | Hello Kitty Island Adventure | Honkai: Star Rail | Monster Hunter Now | Terra Nil
I don't play mobile games and I have virtually no experience with them so good look to the nominees!

Best VR \ AR: No Vote
Nominees: Gran Turismo 7 | Horizon Call Of The Mountain | Humanity | Resident Evil Village VR Mode | Synapse
I don't play VR \ AR and I have virtually no experience with them so good look to the nominees!

Best Action Game: Remnant 2
Nominees: Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon | Dead Island 2 | Ghostrunner 2 | Hi-Fi Rush | Remnant 2
Some really quality games on this category. It's a tie between Armored Core VI and Remnant 2 for me, so I'm going to choose Remnant 2. But only slightly.

Best Action / Adventure: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Nominees: Alan Wake 2 | Marvel's Spider-Man 2 | Resident Evil 4 | Star Wars Jedi: Survivor | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Out of this bunch, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is certainly the strongest amongst the rest. Not to say the others aren't quality, but Jedi Survivor is something special.

Best RPG: Starfield
Nominees: Baldur's Gate 3 | Final Fantasy XVI | Lies of P | Sea of Stars | Starfield
I actually quite like all of these for best roleplaying game but I'm going to go with the one that I don't think most people will vote for for one reason or another *cough* Baldur's Gate 3 *cough*. Starfield. I spent over 100 hours in this game and had nothing short of a great time and I tend to always have a good time with Bethesda RPG's so yeah I'm biased. This is a game awards category so of course I'll be biased!

Best Fighting: No Vote
Nominees: God of Rock | Mortal Kombat 1 | Nickeloedon All-Star Brawl 2 | Pocket Bravery | Street Fighter 6
I don't play fighting games so I can't cast my vote for this one. Good luck to the nominees!

Best Family: No Vote
Nominees: Disney Illusion Island | Party Animals | Pikmin 4 | Sonic Superstars | Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Going strictly off of familiarity, I would choose Super Mario Bros. Wonder but I simply don't have enough experience with the other games to cast a proper vote. So I'm not voting for this one

Best Sim / Strategy: No Vote
Nominees: Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp | Cities: Skylines II | Company of Heroes 3 | Fire Emblem Engage | Pikmin 4
Haven't played any of these so I won't cast a vote here.

Although there are a couple more categories, I simply don't know anything about the rest of the categories to cast votes on, so these are my official votes for the categories that I have some kind of understanding of! The winners get announced on December 7th so let's see you wins!

[.]

To say I was a little bit excited to see Wild Hearts hit Xbox Game Pass would be an enormous understatement. I was absolutely blown away by the fact that a game of this quality would be on Game Pass, but you won't see me complaining!

Wild Hearts is a game that I have been looking to play for quite some time, but for various other reasons, I just didn't feel like I could set aside time for it. And of course, I wasn't really wanting to put the money into it at the time. I'll be honest though, if it had gotten to the point that I really wanted to play it, and I simply couldn't wait, yeah, I probably would have paid full price. Am I happy I don't have to? Sure! Anyway...

Let me just put it this way - if you were a big fan or are still a big fan of Monster Hunter, but you just didn't feel like the gameplay was quick enough, or you felt things just carried too much unnecessary weight i.e. running around, or combat, Wild Hearts is the go-to game. Honestly, I would say Wild Hearts finds a really nice mix between the quickness and agility of Black Desert Online style combat and the overall monster hunting mechanic of...well Monster Hunter. To me, that's what it feels like Wild Hearts is doing here - basically just a super accessible version of Monster Hunter: World but with the much-needed polish on various objects within. That's not to put any negativity towards Monster Hunter: World or Monster Hunter in general. Hell, Monster Hunter: World is one of my favorite games, but I do feel like it suffers from its own mechanics. A lot of games struggle to find a special balance between keeping with old mechanics and polishing them to feel brand new. There's a nice in between that some developers hit, and some don't. I'd say the developers of Wild Hearts has definitely found that nice mix.

As of writing this out, I've put maybe 3 hours total into the game, which includes 2 hunts, and a few upgrades to my weapons. I know there is so much more to discover with the game, but again, as a big fan of the Monster Hunter series, Wild Hearts hits all the right notes. And hey, if you've not played Monster Hunter and are looking for a really accessible way to get into this monster hunting gameplay style, give Wild Hearts a try. I'm enjoying my time with it and will report back once I have more game time!

Off to hunt!

[Guybrush]

Thanks Key 🙂 I noticed Wild Hearts was on gamepass. I haven't played Monster Hunter, but am missing Elden Ring a bit. Although it's not marketed as a Dark Souls clone, maybe it ticks off enough of the same boxes?