Your comment has caused me to reflect on the early game, and I think I agree with you. I suspect I hadn’t noticed the slow early game because the catalyst for me playing the game was grieving a friend who had loved the game — this means that even if I had found it painfully slow, I would have been likely to push on regardless.
I’m trying to remember at what point it potentially gets better. It’s hard to say without knowing how far you got in (especially because it’s entirely possible that maybe you just didn’t jibe with this game (which is fine, because subjectivity is cool)); I remember part of what I enjoyed about the game was the general vibes.
That being said, going off the map above, I think the most engaging parts of the game for me happened after Boulder City. The world gets more content dense as you approach New Vegas, and I remember enjoying the anticipation as I got closer to the city, and how I was beginning to feel like I understood the various moving parts of the world better (such as the politics around the NCR).
So I think the short answer is that yes, it does pick up. If New Vegas seems like the kind of game you usually play, it might be worth giving it another crack (but I can’t gauge how far into the game it starts picking up, time-wise)
Never really agreed with the Metroidvania label, same with Skul: The Hero Slayer. You unlock different biomes (and side rooms), but the items to do so are more like keys. Just my thoughts on that.
You’ve waited now 7 years - waiting a bit longer won’t hurt - but then again if you wait for the next one there will probably always be another one after that.
I like your question but you should formulated better, that’s why it’s getting downvoted.
Short Answer: No, it’s not a flop. Long answer: Many have given the meaning of a flop so I will not repeat. What you want to know it seems is if ERN succeeded as a multiplayer and I get the feeling you are comparing it to FPS, but they have very different markets. ERN made good money and satisfied the Soul-Like gamers Multiplayer addiction. Elden Ring is also not massive when compared to Counter Strike but in proportion ERN is very successful. The learning curve for the Souls-Like games is usually also a detractor for many.
Still top 10 right now in concurrent players on steam. Every other game on the tier list is a free to play game or Dune(with less players than Nightreign) and Dune is a big IP with a multimillion movie trilogy. Calling it flop is absurd.
I’ll throw in a few that I enjoyed (all pc with a controller):
Hollow knight (probably the common favorite). Fun gameplay, interesting story, felt like a great entry into the genre as someone who didn’t like them previously.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Really interesting farming mechanics to unlock new skills and fun combat. I think I liked this one mostly for the gameplay and don’t remember the story much.
Grime. This one felt really, really clunky at first. However, like most games in the genre, it really picked up at one point and I enjoyed the whole experience. I think there were some sections that really dragged on but overall a fun game with interesting movement, mechanics, and enemies.
Ori and the will of the wisps (don’t love blind forest personally)
Blasphemous 1 and 2
Pretty much all the 2d metroids, especially Dread
Guacamelee 1 and 2
The messenger kinda
Steamworld dig 2
Animal Well
Oh and what I like about them. Exploration is 90% of a good metroidvania for me. Unlocking abilities and finding secrets in old locations is just my favorite gameplay loop. I don’t tend to love super linear metroidvanias a-la Metroid fusion, though it’s still a good game. But exploration usually can’t be all of it. Combat if it’s there should be decent at best, puzzles are always good. But really if exploration isn’t there just right I probably won’t love it. Also most of these I play on steam deck / PC. Except metroid
“released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on May 30, 2025. It received generally positive reviews and sold 3.5 million units.[1]”
So, first, it doesn’t matter how many concurrent players it has, it sold 3.5 million so it’s not s flop.
Second, it was released on 5 platforms, you are looking at concurrent players on Steam only.
I see most of my faves have already been covered by others, so I’m going to add the Metroid Prime games. Unlike the mainline Metroid games, which are awesome in their own right, the Metroid Prime games are played from a first person perspective.
You still get to explore, you still get power-ups, but because you can scan almost anything with Samus’ visor, there’s some actual worldbuilding, which the mainline Metroid games didn’t really start doing until Metroid Fusion (which was alright, but Metroid Dread did a better job at worldbuilding, I feel). As for the platform, I played the GameCube versions on the Wii.
Pretty much every single game has a massive drop off in concurrent players after the initial spike. That’s just how humans work, not everyone who tries something will like it.
I bounce around and go through “phases” of games I like to play quite regularly. Sometimes I like boomer shooters, sometimes I like platformers, sometimes I like RPGs, sometimes I like a weird mix of all of them.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne