CODE VEIN: Frozen Empress DLC

This is a firm "No." All the problems all the DLCs share, and in this case the boss isn't polished very much and we start to see a reliance on cheap shots and half-baked mechanics to create difficulty. Not quite in the realm of completely broken as the final DLC, but I spent more time clearing the trials than I really should've because of moves that deal almost no meaningful damage but put an end to no-hit attempts that half of the challenges expect you to do. Never buy the DLCs separately, and never buy the season pass full price. Even on sale it's technically not worth it, but if you're so adamant about getting a DLC locked Gift or Bloodcode, or desperate to play new content, or really want to destroy a part of your soul, I guess nothing will stop you. It's a damned shame, that a really good base game would be shamed by such hurried, corporately-mandated DLC

Last DLC I've gave positive review even the DLC didn't worth the money because I've at least enjoyed the last boss fight.. This time it's an opposite So, what this DLC gives us? 1) 4 new LAZY weapons including new pipe which is as useless as earlier 2) New outfits for Yakumo and Mia, and i'd say pretty "cheap" outfits with little work to them 3) Some face prints and badges in the same style as previous DLC, furthermore i see little to no difference between "hardcore" prints for defeating boss on +x difficulty from this DLC and a previous one. 4) No new side bosses/mobs (in previous DLC we had at least one reskin with new attacks, none for this DLC) 5) Much more annoying final boss 6) A good and a bad blood code and 1 ability for a blood code from previous expansion 7) A couple of blood veils Can't remember anything else honestly, even though I've finished DLC 100% including +10 no damage\items challenge, maybe i left something unimportant behind Let's go into further details: The new weapons and blood veils are just old assets in different color/with different effects. BUT, to be totally fair, they have different stats and most of the times have good scaling for a particular playstyle. In this DLC in particular there is a really good blood veil for a dark mage which I've started to use as main blood veil. On that matter we also have a good dark caster blood code given, which was perfect for fighting the final boss for me, so DLC gives you something playable. And even though preceding opinions are kinda positive, the next three things are what made me give negative review oppose to positive back in the previous DLC: 1) Lazy outfits for companions. Like honestly, giving a "modest" outfit with regular clothes in fantasy game? It's so laaaazy 2) The laziest cosmetics for character. In previous DLC I hoped that we'll get totally different cosmetics in upcoming DLCs, but now I can see what developers are doing. And honestly, I can predict 100% each and every cosmetics from the third DLC, and this fact alone just shows everything. 3) Much worse boss fight. In previous DLC we had a fan boss which despite being a meatbag was at least fair. In order to get the previous +10 no damage achievement i needed to dance with him for 6+ minutes without taking damage and despite being hard it was totally doable. And I was enjoying those dances even though I never did come back to +10 again, it just consumes too much time. The final boss in this DLC is magic caster. And I have no idea what a total "GENIUS" have created an attack for this boss which could cheap you for 1 damage. IN A FIGHT WHERE YOU HAVE ACHIEVEMENTS TO NOT GET ANY DAMAGE AT ALL. This is so stupid. I have found myself multiple times winning without realizing i've lost 1 hp to something so i needed to start all over again. This boss have so many stupid attacks, and those crystals which couldn't be targeted unless you hit them at least one time - WTF the condition is that? Why you can't target them any time? Is that supposed to be some kind of mechanic - swinging blindly hoping to hit it at least one time? Hitboxes this boss attacks have are really stupid, this freaking jump backwards which can hit you when you are near the tail, it's like you are supposed to hit the boss one time and freaking run away to not get caught in a half-arena hitbox. When i tried to beat her melee it was nothing but pain. Then i switched to fire mage and guess what - my record is 45 seconds for the boss. With spells from last DLC the new boss just melts. In both senses. And to live 45 seconds without getting hit is something that is really freaking hard. Unfair hard i'd say. I memorized all the attacks and got to the point when i was able to predict every single unfair hit and you know what? That didn't help me. I needed to just repeat the cycle over and over again, hoping this time the boss won't do stupid stuff. Well, that's says everything about the DLC. Not recommending. Previous one despite all the shortcomings was much better to my taste. Oh, by the way, if you're straggling to get n evades in a row - try dodging without direction (backwards). In my case i was dodging like crazy about 50 tries and didn't get an achievement, but with backward dodges I've got it first time. Not only backward dodges allow you to dodge 2 melee combo attacks at a time, they also encourage the boss to continue melee attacks. Be careful though, when the boss is doing wide swipes, it also leaves some frost stuff on the floor which will cheap you away and probably ruin the streak. P.S. I don't know if it was intentional but i believe that the monkey in a hot spring near one of the small bosses could be an easter egg to the MHW: Iceborne with their Pearlspring Macaque. A good touch.

The bad is that the boss is clearly not meant to be fought in a game like this. It also has an AoE attack that ignores invincibility frames from dodges which makes getting the cores absolute hell. HOWEVER, the map itself is gorgeous, aesthetically, this is my personal favorite place in the game, since it's just got so many amazing sights for people who like snowy landscapes, and the hot springs (the water lakes have steam coming from them) are a really neat touch too.

So I won't go too hard on the outrageous price for this DLC as I basically got it for $1 since it was included in the deluxe version of the game on sale for $12 with the base being $9. However, I wanted to go out of my way to talk about the boss, which is obviously the focus of this DLC. I really wanted to like this boss battle. I enjoy the idea of it and an MMO-style totem management fight that just goes into "you lose" mode if you let the boss power up to full. However the actual execution of this fight's design was just so horribly, embarassingly botched. The crystals orbiting the boss you have to hit have the absolute jankiest hurtboxes of all time and like 50% of the attacks in the game will just completely whiff against them. But the real source of this is that THEY MADE IT SO YOU CAN'T EVEN LOCK ONTO THEM. The fight would probably be perfectly playable if it just let you lock on to the crystals to take them out. Instead you have to do this yakkety sax bs running around the boss unlocked trying to manually aim and time an attack to hit these stupid things, which you get about 1.5 seconds to do before the boss has jumped 20 feet off camera behind you or started swinging with insane tracking or shooting homing ice orbs. It takes what could have been a quick and dynamic battle of strategic precision against a formidable opponent and turns it into a complete ordeal where the controls are actively working against you. Even though the other two bosses have their fair share of OP kusoge attacks, I can at least respect that these are because these bosses are meant to be the ultimate degree of difficulty for the game, and can look pretty cool when you master the dodge timing. In this fight though you basically just have to use the spinning fire swords from Surt as your only option to actually efficiently take down these dumb crystals because any other attack has at best like a 30% chance of actually connecting and you have to wait for it to orbit all the way around the boss before even getting another attempt. It's just rushed corner-cutting design and lack of playtesting on full display. Clearly something happened with Code Vein where some plug was pulled in its post-development funding and the team just decided to add a couple extra dungeons and some cosmetic reskins and wrap things up. A real shame as this game had some decent DLC potential. I don't think Karen ever even got a sidequest related to her, it would have been cool to have a DLC focused on her and Louis and Io since I'm pretty sure the Attendants are some type of clones of her.

The boss fight is just an enemy taken from God Eater and put into a game that does not share God Eater's gameplay, resulting in extremely annoying fights, even when the enemy they took is one that I normally rather enjoy fighting in God Eater. Everything else is basically just a reskin, and the honor mission things are really annoying. I do not recommend any of the DLC.

The DLCs for Code Vein don’t offer much in terms of new content. They don’t expand on the story and mainly consist of a new dungeon and a few additional Blood Codes, which cater to very niche builds. Of the new skills introduced, only a handful are actually worth using. The main draw of each DLC is the boss fight, which delivers a tough but rewarding challenge. Once you’ve beaten the boss, you can replay the fight with added handicaps to further increase the difficulty, though the rewards for completing these challenges are underwhelming. Ultimately, the DLCs seem tailored for players who enjoy difficult encounters. However, due to the lack of substantial content and the minimal rewards, I can’t really recommend them unless you’re specifically looking for an extra challenge.

While I understand why people are not happy with this DLC (and other of the 'elemental trio'), I cannot say it's a VERY BAD DLC. It's bad DLC for [b]it's price tag[/b]. The Frozen Empress adds stuff for any ice-themed characters; from new ice Gifts, to Ymir accessory which can be turned into a tiara (with a little bit of creativity ofc), and it makes you work hard for it. Adds new hybrid code for those who enjoy hybrid builds. Adds something to play the game for a while longer, and an additional test for your skills. Bloody Snow Bayonette hits like a truck with Artemis Blood Code, and makes all hit-the-boss-several-times-without-being-hit type of achievments in the other two DLCs easier. However, it's too pricey, regardless of how you look at it. In my currency (40 PLN) I can get 2 packs of cigarettes, or groceries for 3 days for 2 people without scrapping a barrel. This level of content isn't really worth this price. In my opinion, half of full price is AT MOST I would pay for this type of content (not realted to the main game story wise, adding new accessories, weapons, small area to explore), not to mention it's accessible late in game. Solution would be to add more to such content; more than new equipment and a reskinned boss to fight. If continuation of the main story makes no sense (since there are 3 endings after all) adding side story would be the solution; something "behind the scenes" story that would feel like someone really sat down, and poured heart into writing it. Or maybe even a new companion with their own storyline. In conclusion: - I enjoyed new blood veils, new blood code, and new accessories, along with a boss to fight. - if you wanna buy it, do it when it's on 50-70% sale (like me recently), but not for the full price. - The content itself isn't bad; it's too lazy to call for the full price. This level of content should cost half ot it at most. - Ice-themed players would be delighted to have this one.

It pains me to spend more time to this garbage content even if just for writing a review, but I want to help contribute to other people who is still deciding to purchase this. . DONT! . The whole thing is a copy paste fest of uninspired content. You could find games worth $5 with A LOT MORE value than this DLC. I really really regret buying the Deluxe edition.

I actually liked the base game, but these garbage DLCs actually soured me from the entire game I guess this will teach me to buy something before I know what I'm getting

"I am become dogsh!t, destoyer of hopes." This DLC is even worse than the previous one. -Weapons are pure garbage. Halberd has terrible moveset (and we have a better STR scaling halberd in the base game), sword falls off in terms of pure stats, bayonet is...ok if you want to be generous. Veils are meh as well. Also, why is it so hard to make a new model and a new texture for weapons and veils? Nobody likes low effort retextures. -Blood codes are borderline useless. Active gifts are super slow and situational at best. -Both mini bosses will attempt to cheese you, but it's so pathetic, you're not going to have any problems with it. -Main boss is much easier than Hellfire Knight, but he can be pretty irritating. -Level design is the same low effort. In short: "studio had to make a DLC in one evening before the deadline".