Recent reviews by Ayredyl

The game's great. Population isn't huge, but there's at least a good dozen populated servers, at least in Europe. The game goes to another level if you join an Outfit or Unit, and take part in inter and intragroup events, and with the advent of the SDK, there's some really cool stuff possible in the pipeline.

If the wall of text is too much, there is a simple TL;DR at the bottom to give you my condensed thoughts on the game.

As a Beta tester, I'm obligated for transparency reasons to mention I received my key for the game for free, under the pretence that I would test builds leading up to the release of the game, and my key was carried over into the initial Steam release, as a gesture of thanks from Fredaikis AB.

Now, with the Obligatory disclaimer out of the way so you know where I stand.

Nether: The Untold Chapter is a remake of the original Nether . later renamed to Nether: Resurrected developed by Phosphor games and Published by Nether Productions.

Fredaikis AB, whom you may know for being the minds responsible for the resurrection of Infestation: Survivor Stories under the new name Infestation: The NewZ are the development team behind the return to form, and are responsible for what you are seeing here on this Store Page.

Nether: The Untold Chapter intends to be a remake of the original Nether: Resurrected with several improvements, bug fixes, additional features, and even new monsters, weapons and, later down the line, map expansion.

I have personally been responsible for the testing of builds within the game prior to it's launch. I've seen the changes made to the game as compared to it's sister game.
I will say that I am impressed with how much has been done with the game in the few months Fredaikis Have shown a great deal of competency in taking charge of the project, At every turn, they would consult players, in particular those who established themselves within the community, for advice and feedback on ideas, and how the current systems could be improved.

The launch date was marred in confusion. Originally set to release on May 15th, 2019. This was then pushed back to May 21st, leaving several people to doubt the capability and Frediakis' capacity to deliver what they promise. I, too was sceptical until I got my hands on the game, after volunteering myself, a the recommendation of another tester to assit with testing the builds that would eventually lead to the live build that eventually launched.

After some time, the launch date was sprung on us as being released on the original date planned, the 15th May. Beta testers, including myself were given advance warning buy a few hours before the announcement was made, as we had a direct channel to communicate the the developer.

May 15th came round and at 1PM PDT/9PM UTC/10PM CEST, the game launched Onto steam for purchase with a 40% discount, as an all round gesture to everyone who had paid and played Nether Previously.
The game launched with an extensive set of patch notes, as seen here:http://forums.fredaikis.com/index.php?/topic/7821-patch-10/

Man that was quite a mess.

• Server issues
  
• Bugs that were not found or fixed within the beta builds we tested were present, albeit some of the more minor ones.
  
• Anticheat errors
  
• Game client instability.
  Just to name of the few issues that were commonly cropping up as a floodgate of negative feedback of the game.
  
  Comparisons between the Original and Fredaikis' re-imagining of the game are clear as day to anyone who compares the two. However, the work that has been done to the underlying game cannot be understated. As described in the patch notes, there were dozens of changes to core systems of the game, optimisation improvements, as well as an Anticheat Measure in the Form of their own F.AC. (Fredaikis' Anti-cheat).
  
  This the following day was followed up by a hotfix to patch 1.0 which addressed some, but not all the issues with the game, including some changes suggested to them by the community.
  
  It's at this point I have to confess I had a myriad of issues with FAC refusing to allow me to join a game, and closing my client out. This lead to some frustrating issues with not being able to play. I've determined it seems to be an OS issue. The system I'm running the game on currently, as I am away from home is on Windows 7. I have remotely accessed a PC with Windows 10, where the game has had no issues running fine.
  
  So, is Nether: The Untold Chapters Worth your $15? ($9 while it's still on a 40% discount).
  That's for you to decide,
  I would recommend holding off on the purchase, Do your research, compare the two games, watch streams, videos, and if you're interested, check both the forums, and the Official discord, which I will leave linked here https://discord.gg/nethertuc So that if you wish to join the discord, you can see firsthand what is being done currently as well as look at all the suggestions, negative and positive feedback the community who are actually playing the game actively are giving, as well as suggestions, bug reports so you can form your own opinions on the game, and decide if it is worth your money.
  
  
  
  TL;DR

  To close this review out; I love Nether. It was my first real delve into PC gaming. I'm happy to see that after the game had been mishandled by Phosphor, manhandled by PureFPS, then again wrangled by Phosphor, that a new team, which did a commendable job with The NewZ are in charge of the game.
  
  The game is far from perfect, and it is still plagued by many issues, as most of these reviews rightly point out. It's also dated by 2019 standard, as most of the framework and foundation is built upon the original game, which even by 2013 standards, didn't exactly stand out, even as an Unreal 3 title. Fredaikis have been diligent in working out the issues, and patching them as needed.
  
  Approach the game, if you are a nether veteran with caution. If you're a new prospective player, Please, PLEASE do your research and do not listen to the nonsense filled hyperbole that some of these steam reviews are spouting. Make up your own minds. See you in Burnham.
  
  I am leaving this a recommendation. If there was a neutral option, I would opt for that instead. It's too early to tell how much the game will succeed or fail. Give it time, and make your choice in your own time.

I've had the pleasure of playing Islands of Nyne for over a year from Closed Alpha. And WHEW it's been one hell of a journey.

There is not many games I can say with confidence you should go out and buy, but if you're a competitive player, with a thrist for fast paced, Battle Royale Action without the luls in midgame and the slow, clunky feel of other BR's, go out and buy this game.

True, I will concede that release on the 12th of July was rocky at best. Stuttering issues, matchmaker issues. Most of that has beeen throuroly ironed out and I suspect the devs are exhausted. They've been working their asses off for the last few months trying to ensure the game is in a ready state for EA.

Complications are always expected and they took them on the chin and worked around the clock to resolve them. I have no greater respect for any dev team than the people behind this game. They're engaging, funny and some of the best people at thier crafts. And for a team that's maybe only around 20 people, who only 7 or 8 of which are full time developers, they've done one hell of a job.

Yes, I recommend it. Grab a buddy, or 3. The Dome is waiting, Player. Will you join?

Okay, First. Let me preface this - I'm a LONG time WarZ Vet as well as a long time supporter of Aftermath. I have to this date, somewhere between 400-500 hours clocked inbewteen the Closed Alpha and Open Beta. So, take from this review what you will.

+ PROS:

- Looks nice
(Had a big grahpics downgrade since Alpha, but that should help those with less powerful computers.)

- Big map
Plenty of camps and towns to visit.

- In-depth crafting
(Items require blureprints to craft, which can be found in the world along with items that can be broken down into core materials to use for crafting.)

- PVP.
Its not EXACTLY the same is it was in WarZ. The PVP is slower, but is a good mix of risk vs reward. A skilled palyer can easily take out sever opponents at once.
At the time of writing this, Items drop on death, including guns and ammo. Guns take a durability hit of 50% and ammo that was in the person's backpack is reduced by 50% for the victor (an anti-KoS measure). Annoying as it is, it works well in the envornment,

- Liberations.
Generators - Gas cans - Wrenches, and a ♥♥♥♥ ton of zombies. Liberate a town, and get rewarded with factory-grade weapons and ammunition and powerful meele weapons.

- Base building.
While not FULLY implemented yet, you can build bases and place storage containers in them to store gear. Very time consuming but a good, rewarding experience for players to take the time to build them, think of it as you "home away from home". (JUST DO NOT BUILD ON NOVICE. YOU WILL BE LOCKED OUT OF THE SERVERS AFTER 15 HOURS OF PLAYTIME!)

- SKINS!
This excites me. Im already a sucker for skins ($1,600 spent on CS:GO. RIP). Having the chance to spaltter the brains of my enemies with a Hello-Kitty Sniper? ♥♥♥♥ YES!
The skins arent lazily done either, they're really well made, high-res skins. Just do be aware CRATES COST MONEY TO OPEN! You can, however, find keys rarely in the world itself, either on the ground or off zombies.


Now, onto the Cons, which of course the game has.

-CONS

-Geared SLIGHTLY towards a P2W model. Its not quite there, but there is evidence of it in the resource packs, more specifially the "Assault" pack, which allows you access to armour, guns and Ammunition Blueprints, combined with a materials Resource pack, its a recipe for P2W disater if not carefully managed.

- Poor/Inadequate Optimisation
The game has recently been downgraded graphically, due to the poor framerates, it is apparent if you look at the transition between closed Alpha and the Beta.
It is worth noting here that the game runs exceptionally pootly on Laptop GPU's and Some AMD cards (R7/R9 respectively).

-Same zombie models
This is more of a personal gripe. Seening the Zombie models from ISS isn't a breath of fresh air, but they'll hopefully get an update soon.

- Cheaters
Yes, this ol' topic again. There are cheaters, not gonig to deny that. But if you can get through the inital 15 hours gamepaly and onto Prime servers, they shouldn't bee too much of an issue. The devs have reassured me that working on the Anti-Hack is their main priority.

-Not a huge selection of guns
There are:
- 4 Assault rifles
- 1 Sub-Machine Gun
- 2 Shotguns
- 4 Hanguns
- 1 sniper

Other than that, not much really to complain about. Personal things, really, Most people tend to stay on thje north of the map, so if you're new starting out, I highly recommend the South or the West side of the map.

Good luck, and I'll see you ingame, Survivors!

Damned is one of those games where you play with your friends to be scared with them or to scare them.

Damned has built on the horror genre in it's own unique way; The monster (Currently "Lurker" and "Phantom") are player controlled, while four other players search around a myriad of different "levels", such as "Pines Grill Restaraunt", "Black Lake Asylum" and "Bodom Hotel" looking for keys to unlock certain doors to escape the horrors within..Either that or they'll be shreadded carcasses in the next few minutes.

Currently in 0.71b Alpha, the game is VERY buggy, unoptimised and uncompleted. But its a gem. If you are willling to contribute to the development of this game, then consider giving it a go.
For an Idea of how the game plays, look towards these two videos showcasing two maps, "Factory" and "Black Lake Asylum" from the survivor's viewpoint, alongside Cpt_Aylott!


FACTORY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK-IFu1rATc


Black Lake Asylum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk6VBUhGTXU

Overall, I'll give Damned a 8/10 for its ability to make me ♥♥♥♥ myself countless times, even after clocking 53 hours on the game.