Recent reviews by Lord Dagwood

Game was running fine I my wife's PC for ~25 hours, then the performance just plunged down to 15 FPS regardless of how low I configured the settings. Unless my RTX 4060 Fizzled out, the performance optimization of the game is just bad. I hoping they fix this for the full release. They've already had a year at this point.

This... This is a horror game.

I like cars and modifying them. I like drives in the wilderness. I like survival games. Yeah, I should play a survival game about modifying and driving a station wagon. There are some "obstacles" to avoid. No problem. I've played Mario Kart.

Flash-forward: It's dark with an eerie glow in the sky. Sounds of bending metal fill the soundscape. I'm in a clearing between some forested hills, I think. It's too dark to see anything unlit. There are electrified mannequins around me, my car, and a glowing energy ball. I had already filled up the car with parts I'll need to repair it. The death storm is actively approaching and I don't have enough energy to make it back without this ball.

I pick up the energy ball. The mannequins rearrange and start arcing electricity toward my car, clipping and electrifying me. I deposit the ball in the passenger seat and run around to the driver seat still getting zapped. My health drops to 1. I stop. I'm not currently being zapped and I don't want to run into another arc. I ate a candy bar. Health goes to 13. I'm out of med kits and I'm running out of time. The edges of my vision remain blurred. I sprint to the door and get in the driver seat . I frantically open the map and open the extraction point. Doing so accelerates the storm. A panel reading "DANGER" lights up and another saying "DRIVE". Multiple alarms sound off and the wind picks up around me.

I turn the car key. The car was already on, so it turns off instead. CRAP! I turn it back on. The starter cranks for what feels like minutes. I shift to drive and floor it! The car gradually accelerates as a station wagon would. GO! GO! GO! There's a pillar of light in the sky over a mile away and behind a hill. That's my exit.

While still in the clearing and driving towards the extraction, I take my eyes off the road to look at the map in the passenger seat. I got maybe a minute before the worst of the storm engulfs me. Behind the map, outside my window, there is a whirlwind of energy and chaos as the world prepares to tear itself apart. I look forward again and manage to dodge a few mannequins at the last second.

I start making my way up the hill. There is no direct path so I have to weave through trees and around rocks, plowing through some of the smaller trees. The car's health lights flash with every bump and hit. The hood is flashing red. The traction light on the dashboard lights up and beeps as the tires loose grip. I have enough momentum to make it over the hill.

I dodge the trees on the way down. I'm getting close. I decide to merge onto a nearby road, hoping to avoid more trees. As soon as I make a hard left to get onto it, my lights reveal boulders blocking the entire road. I break, stopping inches from the boulder. Reversing and turning to the side took forever. I check the map. Most of the map is painted in danger red. I got a few seconds before it reaches me. My 13 health would not last long in it.

I opt to stay offroad and drive toward the beacon of light. It's clearly visible and in front of me. I see no obstacles, but I've been fooled before. Come on! Come on!

I make it through.

A brief loading screen and I'm driving back into the garage. My health is still at 13 and my car is beat up. A voice on the radio says "Alright Driver. Stop showing off before you get yourself killed." I park and take a moment to ground myself.

This... This is a horror game.

Alright, time to get ready for the next trip.

This game has ended up being my "comfort shooter" game. Mowing down enemies with a variety of weapons never gets old. I unlocked all the content I paid for, but I keep playing anyway because I just enjoy the gameplay loop.

There's a ton of gear combinations to try out. Not all, but many weapons and gear are viable. You'll notice your teammates will be equipping different gear each time, which adds to the variety of experiences you'll have in a session. You might have one game where a teammate is taking down drop ships before they deploy. Another where mortars rain on enemies (don't let them get too close). Another where "OMG, no one equipped anti-tank!?"

The community is pretty cool. In my 200+ hours so far, I had only one game where players were team killing intentionally. The game strongly encourages team work and makes it easy and rewarding to work together, even with randoms. And with friends, it's even better, but still not required. Playing solo is okay, but is balanced for squads.

Lastly, the devs are responsive to player concerns. Yes, there were some frustrating nerfs and glitches, but nearly all of them have been addressed. It's in a great place right now and getting more content drops. The Warbonds you can purchase with real money never expire and are always available. No FOMO. Which is another reason it's my comfort game. I don't feel pressured to play daily. I unlock things at my own pace. I can play other games for a month and come back here and not miss anything.

I very much enjoy this game and can't wait to see what the devs roll out next.

You build factories to automate resource gathering. As you get assigned more complex resources, you expand and build up your factory. Occasionally, you need to explore to find more building resources and build remote factories. The gameplay loop is addicting.

The platforming and combat is very solid and satisfying. Run forward, puch some robots, hop on platforms, run, punch some more robots, find a crack in the wall, punch it, solve a platform puzzle, save a good robot (sometimes a robot dog!), run and jump to the boss, punch them extra, go back to base and get upgrades that let you run and punch better. Repeat.

Stardew Valley like gameplay, but in a fantasy setting. It pretty much builds off of Stardew Valley, taking what worked and leaving less desirable things like the energy bar. And of course, it added in it's own things like magic, races, and its own likable cast. It is just different enough to feel fresh as opposed to playing Stardew Valley again.

It's nice

Answers the age old question, what if Pokemon was a survival game with Dinosaurs?

Great game! Gets a lot of influence from the Metroid series without actually being Metroid. This is not a clone. You run, jump, shoot, backtrack, find upgrades, but apart from that, it is very different. The upgrades and guns you'll find are very interesting and creative. It sort of recreates that Metroidish feeling of “I can’t get to that area yet, but I bet there’s an item that’ll help me,” but it is not an item that you’d think it’d be. There’s no morph ball, no space jump, no missiles. You instead get a creative tool or ability you wouldn’t expect and because of that, it really captures that first sense of wonder when playing Metroid for the first time.

The story is average. The premise is the common, “There is a bad guy, and you are the only one who can help us” with a plot twist or two. The setting is very interesting and unique, but being a unique and complex world, it can be confusing without finding and collecting the in-game notes about it.

Axiom Verge was made by one person, and I gotta say I am very well damned impressed this guy created all this. Kudos to you Thomas Happ! This game satisfied my Metroid fix. I wouldn’t say it is better, less than, or equal to Super Metroid, because it is a different, but enjoyable experience. I had lots of fun playing it.

Overall very fun. A small improvement of Fallout 3 with some good/bad changes.

The Good:
Combat feels better
The open world has a lot to explore, although it feels smaller.
No level cap means you can always be improving
I like building settlements
You can sprint
You can improve weapons by moding them, making obsolete weapons last a bit longer.

The Meh:
Skill points are gone and are instead mostly dependent on your raw ability (S.P.E.C.I.A.L.) score
No more Karma
Story, it could be a good story, but the dialog and animations are so bad you don't really get immersed.
Junk is useful, but now you have a bunch of junk weighing you down. You have to choose between carrying more weapons or being able to hold more junk.

The Bad:
UI and Pipboy can be a pain sometimes.
Inventory management. You'll spend a lot of time in the inventory screens.
Character dialog animation is still terrible
Charisma advantage is weak. The challenge dialog options do not feel rewarding.
You cannot craft weapons anymore. If you want the Shishkebab or Deathclaw gauntlet, you have to find them now.

The Ugly:
The glitches. Yeah, you get one that's funny or advantageous, but some may make it harder or in my case, break the game altogether. Out of the 20+ saves the games keeps, the earliest one before it got glitched was 3 hours back. Don't rely on quicksaves are the auto-saves.

I recommend it because the core of the game is exploration, combat and character building and it does these wonderfully. Everything else is tolerable except for the game breaking glitches.