Recent reviews by Huey The Bull

This game is so good, it turns me and my friends into A Tier voice actors to rival Matt Mercer for a few seconds.

Its like someone laced pure capsaicin with Fentanyl and LSD, and force fed me the concoction through an IV Drip, but i willingly volunteered for it. And i will keep coming back again and again.

I'm writing this from the perspective of someone who has played Space Station 13 since 2009; and as a player who avoids traitor lobbies; this game has me absolutely hooked by the scrotum. It has what i loved about Space Station 13; the communication, social chaos, and the menial simulation-esque tasks to fill in the void but with more excitement.
As i've said before, i've largely avoided traitor gamemodes, and this also goes for SS13; i've mostly played in extended servers, and unless you're playing a scientist, there's not much going on.

But with Barotrauma, even if you aren't playing in a traitor server, the creatures from the depths means every round is full of action; be it you're a mechanic or a gunner or even an assistant. The game can get extremely punishing, but mostly everyone takes the loss with a laugh, which is in line with the community of SS13 as well.

My one major complaint are the bots; especially in singleplayer. Sometimes i want to play by myself, and 7/10 the bots do somewhat well with the tasks they are assigned to and are generally semi-intelligent. But what absolutely irks me is the fact i have to give them orders AGAIN after every round and area change.

Spending five minutes every new round just sorting the bots out get absolutely tedious, and all i ask is more intuitive AI crew and the ability to save orders between rounds.

tl;dr: Clown puts 4 fuel rods into reactor, runs to the captain and honks, as everyone along with the ship plummets into the abyss in a blaze of radioactive glory. 8/10 would praise the honkmother under the crushing depths of Europa, just not with the bots.

TLDR at the very end

Great game, but doesn't excuse the terrible launch and lack of polish. Played 80 hours in a week, did everything i could for a first playthrough.
Most side quests are tedium, go here, help the NCPD, with gigs being slightly more interactive and requiring more thought with optional objectives. Main story, especially the ending was quite underwhelming from me, i had more engagement and enjoyment with some of the more major, story-driven side quests. (Panam, Panam..)

Stealth is very inconsistent, shooting feels nice, melee not so much, especially fist fighting. Double tap to dodge is a dumb feature, let us rebind it. Power Snipers are overpowered, they can penetrate through infinite layers of cover, i've killed entire enemy compounds without stepping a foot inside.

UI and Menu can be very frustrating and clunky. Let me craft multiples of ammo, let me scrap multiple things at once.

Levelling is fun, but i feel like the level cap is too low. Crafting being tied to the tech skill, and not having ways to sell crafting specs mean i'm lugging around tons of useless legendary specs unless i'm running a tech heavy character. Crits are overpowered, but i also love it to death, so i'm mixed about that.

Driving either feels like crap, or smooth, depending on the car. First person sucks in cars, use them in motorcycles.

tl;dr: Do i love the game? Yes. Do i hate the game? Also yes. If you can dig past the optimization, and the myriad of gameplay and technical issues, you can like it.

7/10

Be prepared for a long read! This game really caught my eye, so im happy to provide it with this long as heck review, but for those who don't have time, theres a tl;dr at the end.

The Good Stuff
- Absolutely thrilling to be chased by the girl while hearing her ambient music.

- Getting caught doesn't mean instant death, you have a second chance, which means teammates can continue contributing regardless.

- Tension is amazing when the girl is on her cooldown/rest period and is roaming the house with no hostile intent; you'll be wondering when and where she will be going berserk, especially after stumbling across her during a long period of quietness.

- A unique-ish mechanic with the dolls, and using it to both save yourself and your friends.

- Marked objective dolls aren't a hassle to find with generous sound cues.

- Gradual increase in difficulty as the game progresses adds to the tension and encourages using strategy to finish objectives during the little moments of peace you recieve.

The Not So Good Stuff
- Biggest issue for me was the lack of any form of voice or text chat. It is hard to communicate intentions to other teammates during public lobbies, especially if they are new, since the game has zero to no tutorial of any kind to introduce the mechanics. This just means that the game is best enjoyed with a group of friends on Discord/TeamSpeak or any other third party voice party app, but with any multiplayer game, any game can be fun with a group of people you like.

- A lack of any tutorials. I assume the 'tutorial' is the notes scattered around the homestead, but personally i think that's a lazy way of doing it. I was confused for a good hour before finding a guide on Steam. I think a menu panel with a rundown of the mechanics would be the simple method, however if they want to go the more 'immersive' route, they could just have the narrator or whomever was speaking over your radio to explain the mechanics in an 'in-universe' briefing. E.g: "We have reports that she is calmed when in close proximity to her dolls, and survivors of her encounters have reported that coming in contact with a flame reverses the 'doll' effect that happens when someone gets caught by her."

- Crude server browser. It's a minor complaint, i do wish we could see the ping of the host without joining their game.

- Correct me if i'm wrong but i can't seem to find an option for a private lobby. Instead i have to kick any unfortunate randoms that come in before my friend(s) do, and yes, i know this can be negated by putting the 2-4 player cap on the lobby, but it's a temporary workaround.

- Repetitive (for now). At the time of writing this, the game only has one map; which is understandable. It is a work in progress title, after all. But if you do plan on getting it at this point of development, be ready to run around the same house with the same scary ghost lady. While yes, the RNG of the items in the game put some variation to every round, it's only very minor.

tl;dr: A decent co-op game with potential, however suffers from repetitiveness and glaring issues like a lack of a way to communicate in-game, and a non-existent tutorial. Yes, i'm aware this game is early in development, hence the lack of content. I'm hopeful the game will improve in the future with the feedback i've seen coming in from players, but at the time of writing this review i recommend playing it with your best buds on Discord/TeamSpeak/ETC.

Was expecting Microsoft Flight Sim in space, but i got Euro Truck Wars: Rise Of The Traders. The community is amazing; found so many PvE centric communities, and it has amazing visuals for the little graphic fidelity it needs

You can ride a horse and kill a hippo using a bloody giant axe. Get it.

Oh and also the fact it is a major step and improvement for the franchise, in terms of stealth, combat and story. That too.

Its amazing, a'ight?

There was one reason i got this game. One reason i spent the hours, i got invested. It was because of one sentence. One damned sentence. I can hear them like yesterday; "You see that mountain? You can climb it!" Damn you Todd. DAMN YOU! Even through your lies, your manipulation i can't seem to stop wanting more. Why is that? WHY!? His words are like a serenade of seduction. A poem that's two words long: "Buy Skyrim."

Amazing parkour system, combat is fluid, skills are mostly useful and gives a great sense of progression. Co-op play can be fun and amusing with friends as well. Story is on the weaker side, everywhere. Recommend going through story with another friend for maximum enjoyment. Ending was sub-par, weak, and completely disappointing. Do NOT go into the ending expecting a decent conclusion or execution of one.

Be me: Surrounded by cops.
Try to run. Gets blocked by a hunking thicc boy.
Gets shotgunned to death. I'm bleeding from my wounds, losing all sense of life.
Chains shouts at me to get the f**k up, my wounds magically heal, and somehow i get a burst of energy.
The Payday gang are healers and wizards.