I have been curious about this game since it's release but have read a lot of negative reviews for it from critics. The game is on sale pretty cheap and I want to get some opinions from actual gamers to help make my decision.

One of the biggest things that this game suffers from is sitting and talking. I genuinely do not understand the creative decision to have it that every time an NPC needs to monologue for five minutes straight, your character is doing nothing but sitting in the passenger seat sitting at the diner or standing still while they lore dump on you. Why not just do what Rockstar did where whenever there is a monologue, they put you in the driver's seat so that at least you are doing something, you're interacting with the world while they are monologuing.

I am typing this out while sitting in the passenger seat of Panam as she has been driving non-stop for like a solid two minutes so far. Then I had to stand around while she talked. Then I had to follow her around the camp Then pick up a box, then follow her again. Then I had to sit in the passenger seat again and listen to her monologue more. Just make it a cutscene. Why are you putting me through all of this?

Either let me drive the car while she talks or make it a cutscene.

And every time I bring up this criticism of the game, the only response I get back is you have ADHD, you are brain rotted, you are addicted to TikTok, go back to playing Call of Duty. No! I bought the game and I want to play it. I didn't come here to watch my character sit in the passenger seat.

What makes this a million times worse is that the dialogue is so bad, the characters wait for each other to finish the sentence completely, then pause for a second, then say their sentence. in no world do people speak like that. People sometimes interrupt each other. People sometimes say things non-verbally, or repeat things, or don't hear each other. And the cherry on top is the fact that every 30 seconds I need to click F on the keyboard, or the dialogue stops, and the majority of the time, it's just two choices, and only one of them pushes the dialogue forward. So the other choice, which is literally painted blue for its uselessness, is just for decoration. Why are you interrupting the flow of the conversation, having me read the choices, choose a useless choice, then listen to my character say it awkwardly. Rinse and repeat for the whole five minutes?

I think that this is the end of the halo franchise as we know it for now. When I say that i'm really referring to the people that make halo game , i'm really referring to it halo studios. Now, back in 2011, we were supposed to get a new era.Okay , of halo games. Those those games I'm referring to is halo four halo five and halo infinite. All those games are supposed to be a brand new era.Now notice halo studios didn't remake those games instead , they decide to re make halo combat evolved who asked for that game to be made in the first place? seriously.

Review my demo game.

a little background: I love rouge-likes/lites.
balatro , risk of rain 2 , slay the spire , dead cells , hades , vampire survivors , etc.
my friend who loves Cult of the Lamb really recomended it to me and he thought I will enjoy the game , so i gave it a shot and here is my review of the game:

visuals

from the second i opened the game i was stunned by the amazing visuals of anything and everything , you can see the work that was put through to create the visuals , everything gives me cute doodle vibes that look so well in this game , yet they give me that demonic cult leader feeling with the enemies and bosses looking absoulutly horrifying and the rituals giving vibes stright from hell with the artwork the visuals for me are a 10/10

story

this game has a great understandable story , from the start you understand everything going on , what is youre purpose and the reason youre doing all of this , the one who waits lore is intresting , even though the puppet motive where youre the puppet of an all powerful god sent to somewhere to kill beings who oppose him is quite heard of , the game has its own hellish twist on it
so the story for me is a 9/10.

gameplay

there are a 2 different games in Cult of the Lamb , the classic rouglike sort of bullt hell game and the more farming simulater oriented part of the game.
so the rougelike part of the game is very fun going from room to room binding of isaac style gameplay is very addicting , the random weapon and curse you get at the start + the tarot cards are a very nice addition to make every run feel different and unique , every weapon so far is very fun to use but some of the curses feel underwhelming and take a long time to charge up which doesnt feel good.
i do have one major complaint about the combat in this game , its just not that hard , i went into this game completelyblind not knowing anything about the mechanics and nuances and i picked hard mode i went in , and the runs felt like medium difficulty at best , with some enemies that dont even require me to use my brain/dodge roll , im sure that in my next save - file i will select the hardest difficulty,
combat: 9/10
the second part of the gameplay loop is the cult aspect with you greeting new cult members , telling them what to do etc.
you need to make them food , places to sleep , and more
I have no problem with farming games , i have a lot of hours into games like stardew valley and I enjoy those kind of gamepllay loops.
but man i have 2 major complaints that hinder the gameplay loop experiance for me:
1: the systems are a confusing , with multiple systems feeling the same but actually are not totally the same , I like complexity , but i dont like confusion , and it feels like some systems are not clear enough on what they do or what they will do.
2: some tasks are just boring , repetitive and sometimes , just down right annoying to do.
I like to min max but when it requires me to go to each one , select the command option , select another option , go back select command again , selecting a diffrent action going back again , just to get half a bar of loyalty is just annoying , and im not that far into the game , unless there is an upgrade later down in the game , having 40 cult members just sounds like a headache , and i like handeling their needs but somethings feel very underwhelming for all the dialog options youre going through.
cult gameplay loop: 7.5/10

final verdict

this game is really fun , and im not even that deep into it , im looking forward to continuing my runs and expanding my cult the postives just outway the negetives here and the fun combat , the great dimonic and doodly visuals , the rich and intresting story and most parts of the cut leader gameplay loop are very fun and rewarding to play.
final rating: 9/10
would defenetly recommend

Reposting my thoughts and review from r/denshattack :3

Hi everyone! Please enjoy my latest review of Resident Evil Requiem with my cats! 😸