Recent reviews by Wire

NOOOO DONT HURT KYLEEEE HES JUST A LIL GUY,,,,

This is one of those games where I wish I could review without giving a recommendation either way.

It's definitely not bad by any means, I'd place it more on mediocre. The artstyle, ideas and effort put into the game is palpable and I commend the devs on those grounds, but unfortunately it just felt slapped together to me. Initial excitement slowly gave way to confusion and boredom, quite a lot of the puzzles weren't that engaging, the story got too flimsy and I wasn't a fan of combat (tank control-style aim without any lock-on nor a melee weapon or kick to destroy boxes/containers, not to mention enemy design getting boring quick). It's also one of the shortest games I've played to date, under 6 hours. Part of me wishes there was more to experience, but I was also pretty done by the end of it.

Overall it was an okay time, even starting off pretty interesting, but ultimately grew into a forgettable experience. There is some level of charm to it, but if I knew what my experience now was going to be, I honestly wouldn't have bought it. Giving this a thumbs down only because every review thusfar is positive and I want to shine a light on another perspective of the game.

This remake released over a year ago, and yet still has significant bugs that required numerous restarts. Doors not opening, elevators stuck on red, detached inventory GUI floating off somewhere and everything uninteractable, constant inventory opening noise etc. For €60 compared to the flawless €20 of the original 2008 Dead Space, this is absurd.

There are improvements to the 2008 original, but plenty of problems in comparison too, so it really comes down to whether you feel the improved graphics and a voice-acted protag is worth the extra €40. I didn't, and slightly regret even getting it on sale for €20 when I had the original.

One HORRIBLE result of the changes though is that the plasma cutter isn't ammo-economical anymore due to how precise you need to land shots on top of the drop count. I completely decked it out with nodes first chance I got, but found myself burning more ammo than I was getting back. Reset it and dumped into storage, switched to contact beam & force gun and upgraded both, and halfway through I was struggling to hold onto all the ammo and had to keep selling it, or even dumping if a shop was too far off and I needed the inventory space. Something to keep in mind because people still tout the plasma cutter as king, but the force gun & contact beam was consistently 2/3 shots for most and didn't really need aim, whilst the plasma cutter was at LEAST 4 shots. Coupled with the secondary fire of the force gun & contact beam, whereas the plasma cutter just switches orientation, the plasma cutter is a waste of space considering that you only get ammo for guns you're carrying with you and the other two weapons did what it does and more

I don't understand the other reviews about how 'optimised' the game is. Perhaps in regards to the original Subnautica (which isn't a high bar btw), but as far as my experience goes, Below Zero is absolutely rife with bugs.

Accidentally getting stuck inside of things has been the cause of the majority of my deaths and subsequent loss of resources, so much so that I now rely on the dev console to warp ahead. Annoying SFX sounds that keep continuously playing until I save and restart the game, no matter where I am on the map. Using anything with inventory (fabricator, upgrade module, storage etc.) and being stuck in position until I mess with HOPEFULLY another item in close vicinity of me, or restart and lose the past 10-20 mins of progress.

Outside of the bugs, I've even found myself annoyed by game mechanics. It is way easier to get materials (which I consider a good thing but I see why others wouldn't) due to the size of the map being small, but this also means it's difficult to find some research fragments, particularly the last one of 3.

The worst bit by far is the bloody navigation. This wasn't so much an issue early game, but I'm now at a point where I'm only exclusively given cryptic directions (i.e "Go East from your current location 1km to find an iceberg with a place on it"). This becomes a MASSIVE PROBLEM when I can't see anything with poor visibility from constant snowstorms and rain above land, and it took me 30-40 mins of searching EVERYWHERE before I gave up and used the console to warped to the coordinates.

I have qualms about underwater searching too, but it's slightly similar to Subnautica so some others mightn't care so much there. Regardless, the game could've benefited from some map system, even something rudimentary but slowly upgradable like Minecraft's would've worked.

Needlessly searching forever for things because of a lack of navigational ability and landmarking isn't fun exploration, it's tedious grinding. This was at least doable in original Subnautica because I retrofitted the Cyclops into a mobile habitat to survive anywhere so I didn't need constant trips to-and-fro my main base to recharge and resupply, but you can't put anything in the Seatruck (which replaced the Cyclops and Seamoth), only connect prefab modules.

Despite all this, the game doesn't feel bad by any means, but it doesn't feel great either and I'm tempted to put it down because of all the problems. Get it on sale if you wanna try it, not worth the full price imo.

Honestly loved this game to pieces the whole way through. Reminded me an awful lot of the earlier Resident Evil games with a huge focus on puzzle-solving in a tense and dangerous place (especially with fixed camera angles), and the environment was absolutely beautiful. It's super similar to Silent Hill with heavy religious themes too.

Story was really nice too but could've used some polishing in areas, barely detracted from the overall experience though and there's definitely some juicy twists.

The one thing I had issues with was getting into the start of the game and fighting enemies, initially kept dying but learned how to get the jump on 'em after a small bit.

All-in-all, absolutely 100% worth the price if you like horror in general and are a fan of the old-style Resident Evil/Silent Hill games, it's a lovely experience sorely lacking from most other games I've ever played in my life.

Worst game I've ever played, hands down

Ran out of ammo in the first few minutes with no way to get any back

buy it