Recent reviews by FlamingScar (She/They)

charging money for an open source project is wild, not even adding anything to said project that isn't freely available on the github page

like really whats the argument for it to be paid?

Final Shape was a fantastic finale to Destiny, for me, its my end point, made all the highs and lows worth every second

Will I come back? Maybe not opposed to it, but unlike every other time I felt like quitting Destiny, with Final Shape I can feel satisfied with where I left off, every other time I always felt like I left incomplete, as if there was something missing, and that was by design, the story wasn't over so of course its going to feel like I haven't "completed" the game

but with the Final Shape, the story is over, I feel satisfied, the feeling you get when the credits roll on your favorite game

I cried at the ending of Final Shape, not tears of sadness, but just raw emotion after years of working towards this moment it arrived, and it did not disappoint at all

Thank you Bungie, for the highs, and even the lows, its been a rocky ride, but a ride I did not regret going on, a ride I will always remember fondly, and its all because of the Final Shape, a finale that made this bumpy ass ride that felt like it was going to collapse many times, all worth it

Black Mesa, as you've probably heard 10000 times now, takes Half Life 1 and brings it to the modern day, both visually and in game play, many will say Half Life aged well, and compared to many other games of its time it did, but it still is pretty hard for modern gamers to go back and play, even I struggled my way through Half Life 1 due to many things that just aged poorly (I will forever live with PTSD from the pain on a rail put me trough)

to say I don't recommend Black Mesa would be to say I don't recommend Half Life, which would be a bold faced lie

now for people who have never played Half Life before asking "Black Mesa or Half Life" my answer is Black Mesa as I see it as the better game, now obviously it could not exist without the masterpiece that is the original, but I do think it is better

what I would recommend for people who have never played Half Life, play Black Mesa first then go back to the original game, but doing that, do keep in mind Half Lifes age and try and stay away from comparing it to Black Mesa


Edit after completion: Black Mesa in the final chapters that I will not name as to avoid spoilers but any Half Life fan knows the chapters I am referring to, blows it out of the water, these chapters in the original game always fell a bit far from what they could of been due to Valves at the time limited game development experience, its easy to forget that the masterpiece half life 1 is was Valves first ever game, but the later chapters fell short

Black Mesa corrects this and I would go as far as to say surpasses any of Valves works in 1 major area it wouldn't be a fair review if I did not spoiler it so spoilers ahead

Xen in Black Mesa is just incredible, the best looking Half Life game by far even surpassing Alyx even if graphical fidelity is technically worse, the art direction Black Mesa goes for with Xen is just incredible and the change in length to make Xen much longer is very much appreciated with just how beautiful it was made to be.


The Nihilanth boss fight is better then any boss fight in any of Valves own games, geuninly Crowbar Collective surpassed Valve with it

As a more recent Half Life fan, only playing Half Life 2 when it was made free with the release of Alyx but who has gone back to play Half Life 1, Crowbar Collective not just improved the game, they made the definitive Half Life 1 experience.

I consider this game the canon Half Life 1 because of that. For anyone whos unfamiliar, Valve lets fans decide canon, not in a way where the community controls the writing, but to summarize how Valve sees it "We just make games with stories, the player can decide what they see as canon" Valve has no official canon themselves that you have to listen to, so you as a player get to decide what you see as canon, and for me, Black Mesa is Half Life 1, its not only faithful in the small story changes it does make (nothing major just some additions that Valve never intended) but they fit the lore and story of the game, they respect the story Valve laid out and adds on top of it

overall, 11/10

this game is objectively good, one of the best games of all time, I didn't like it, but I am not stupid enough to go against the grain and say its bad, its just not for me

why are you even here go play it

GAMBLING ISN'T ADDICTIVE, I'VE GAMBLED FOR MONTHS ON END EVERY DAY AND HAVE NEVER GOTTEN ADDICTED, ITS CALLED HAVING THAT GRINDSET

I'm not a fan of the DLC, and no its not because its hard

My main complaint is how the DLC leveling was done, when I heard there would be a separate leveling system I was excited, what I loved about the base game is the freedom it felt you had, sure you COULD go explore and get stronger but it was far from mandatory.

In the base game you could play the game much more like the linear souls games where you kill a boss and go straight to the next, for example, after killing morgott using the runes you get from him leaves you decently strong enough to kill fire giant, the next main boss in progression, but if you want to explore all of Lendell and moutintops you could be going into fire giant feeling stronger then you felt going into morgott, killing bosses makes you stronger, exploring makes you even stronger then that

In Shadow of the Erdtree this is not the case, killing a boss gains you no strength, and since the next boss will be harder, have more health, hit harder, you end up feeling weaker after killing a boss, that is, unless you go exploring and gain strength that way, but unlike the base game where this made you go from getting stronger to getting even stronger, in the DLC this feels like exploring just to get back to how strong you felt against the last boss, it doesn't feel like I'm gaining strength by exploring, it feels like I'm working to get back to where I already was

overall this was a big enough turn off for me to stop playing, one of the best feelings from killing a boss in the base game was that feeling of progression, feeling like you got stronger, but thats gone now, killing a boss feels so much less satisfying when all it drops is runes that are useless in the DLC

my opinion would change greatly if bosses dropped the DLC leveling material, and maybe some do and I just haven't gotten to them, but the ones I have killed didn't and a short glance at the wilki seems to suggest no bosses drop them

again like I said, I'm not unhappy the DLC because its hard, I know that going and getting the Scadutree Fragment from exploring makes the DLC not much harder then the base game, I know I could get back to feeling just as strong as I felt at the previous boss if I just went and found all the Scadutree Fragment I have accsses to, hell maybe the DLC would even feel easier, my point is I don't want to do that, I feel like I'm being forced to do that, when in the base game it had a much more "play how you want" feel, if I wanted to go from one legacy dungeon straight to the next, I felt strong enough to do so, and thats how I like to play, but the DLC really fights against this playstyle

For being Early Access this game already has easily 10+ hours of content for a VERY low percent completion play through. but lets be real here, this is a rougelike your not just killing the final boss once and calling it a day, for the rougelike fan there is easily 30-50 hours of content to play here, again this game is in early access, more is to come through the year

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

for exactly what is and is not in the game, I'll try and keep this as spoiler free as possible but entirely spoiler free wont happen

Whats already available

all but 1 weapon including all their upgraded versions

1 of 2 loops the game has, the 2nd loop is partially available but only has 2 of (presumably) 4 bosses and by extension 2 pf 4 regions

almost all upgrades you can unlock are already here

and much more, matter of fact it would be easier to move on to

Whats not here yet (as its still being worked on)

half of the 2nd loop

much of the character art in the game is placeholder/concept art, this is particularly noticeable since it isnt all placeholder art, much of the art is finished making the parts that arnt very noticeable (reminder this is character art specifically, I've yet to notice any location art to not be finished)

1 weapon isn't here

and much of the dialogue in what is available of the 2nd loop isnt here either (which in this game is unfortunate as just like the first game the voice acting and writing is some of the best in the industry)

Should you buy the game

Depends, if you want a full experience, No, wait till 1.0, if it would ruin your experience to beat a boss and have a screen pop up saying "Congrats, unfortunately we have yet to finish this part of the game so were gonna kill you to send you back" then wait, but odds are if you're reading this review during early access then your not that type of person

If you just want a fun game to play and could care less about the fact that its unfinished (not in a Cyberpunk 2077 type unfinished, the game has been pretty much bug free) then I 100% would say go for it, the game is a blast and if it were finished would be my game of the year, but I tend to not put early access games as my game of the year (though I may have to make an exception this year, the game is that good)

good game, play now

the only single improvement is that you no longer need to gamble for skins, I once spent $50 in OW1 on lootboxes and didn't get a single legendary skin, while the prices in OW2 are ridiculous, I'd still rather buy an overpriced skin outright then gamble for a chance at one (in an Ideal world I would do neither)

every single other aspect of the game is worse then OW1, and to top it off the PvE mode, the ENTIRE POINT OF A "SEQUEL" got canceled

heres a helpful link where you can download an infinitely better version of this game: https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/440/Team_Fortress_2/

I wish I could say yes and no

Zombies? yes

anything else? thanks to activision taking down BOiii, no