I just kept attacking it while it was recharging and it didn't gain much. But I also went back and did it again later and it didn't do it at all. I don't know if that was luck or something else.
Sound of the Abyss. It only has 3 attacks, I think. Stay around the little alcove you need to hide in when it does the sweep move and it should be fine.
I've installed it because I'm intrigued, but the blood moon mechanic sounds dumb (essentially making the game harder if you're shit at it, as far as I can tell from early feedback).
There's a lot going on. Don't know how long I'll last. Controls quite well, all the basics are there, but yeah, it's pretty brutal.
Parry is very important, and some of the timing on them is less than clear. And there's a stylie around "bonfires" that is quite the rude shock early on. Opposite of Islets in it's introduction outside of the first 30 seconds showing movement. It does look really good though.
But Moonscars takes things a step further, and is one of the few games to ask if Dark Souls could be…harder. Activating a Mirror – your save points to spend Bone Powder and grab upgrades – isn’t the respite you’re expecting, because to get it working you’ve first got to fight a doppelganger of yourself. Oh, and this doppelganger’s stolen your special weapon and witchery – good luck! After overcoming a new area’s nightmarish difficulty, a fight to the death with yourself is the last thing you want to see – it’s like letting a marathon runner cross the finish line, only to chuck them into a cage match – but it makes resting at each refuge feel well-earned.
I'll cross my fingers for an eventual non elite gamer mode, Below style (a good example of devs folding under pressure and releasing an update that admitted that perhaps maybe they were sort of being cunts). Or a squashing of the blood moon at least.
Blasphemous and Death's Gambit both ended up massively different from the initial release due to aftercare tinkering.
Played it for a bit. Beautiful, and the combat is right up my alley. The blood moon thing though, fucking hell. I thought I was doing okay but I've died twice now, and my punishment is...tougher enemies. Silly idea that smacks of meddling with the rules for the sake of having new rather than good ideas. Out.
The moon thing isn't that crazy in combo with the staying alive bonuses. And you can spend glands on switching it back to what you want.
Did a whole lot of linking up of areas, and had white moon and stayed alive awhile so was had stacked sprite bonuses and 3 stat trinket things active. Until I got to first big boss, was all but invisible.
First boss wasn't that crazy to deal with either. (Could be a loop here where I don't have glands and die too much and end up having to fight it with red moon which could ruin everything, but... yeah, not that hardcore, yet.)
I'm getting pretty confused by the basic stuff atm. But one only just done the first clay thingy (which I didn't understand), and haven't died yet, so I'm guessing things will become more apparent next sesh. Though tbh I'm not sure I'm in the right mood for it so may play some time later.
I'm rinsing it. Its a banger, a more tight variant of the original. Bastard hard in single player too, as it should be. Gunplay is still awesome. Bought it on PS5 and PC.
PC performance is a bit gash, even with a high end gpu you need to use DLSS to get consistently above 60fps. I'm on 1080 ultra DLSS performance and get 90-120fps. Without DLSS, 45fps.
It does have that typical thing of a shooter where its vastly easier on PC but that'll always be the way. Did a boss first time on PC. On PS5 another boss took me like 10 attempts.
It was a bit by-the-numbers, and definitely slower/clunkier from what I can recall, but some fun to be had imo. Will wait for reviews... had thought it was on gamepass but it seems not...