Recent reviews by Helius21

This game is still as wacky and great as it was the first days I played it on my first steam account in 2012. The balance and Valve sanctioned competitive virtually doesn't exist, but that doesn't take away from the utter chaos and fun of it by consequence. You can also find lots of community hosted comp matches where balance is key, and earn medals for it which I think is pretty cool.

But I would never play this for the casual experience, the bots have been and will probably be an issue for years to come now and it's pretty crappy how little has been done to really combat them. Not to say Valve has done literally nothing, just disappointing to see that they keep coming back.

Community servers however are where it's at, plenty of modded game modes and vanilla, all talk, extra player slots, fun plugins, and vscript is a game changer for the future of the games lifespan. TF2 will go on until Valve shuts it down by force, it's never too late to hop in and game it out, just educate yourself on where to play. Pretty much zero reason to play on Valve servers anymore unless you really like suffering, or want to play some MvM which also has cheater issues because of course losers don't care about the focus of the game they cheat in.

I have recently deleted my positive review for Darktide as I don't agree with my message left behind as much.

For starters I not only was active in the beta, but also made the questionable choice to pre-order, something I don't often do but I was sold after I had killed many a heretic in beta which is also the time period of the servers preforming the best they ever have as far as I could make sense of in my time. Although only a few NPC's did much and we improved our weapons from time to time as our only real incentive to stay at the hub, I found myself deeply fitting into the energy and atmosphere of the game.

The maps are quite beautiful in execution and sells not only the macabre grimness to super dense, yet rundown, forgotten, and aging hive cities, but fits it perfectly into a great arena to slay heretics in. There is also a decent amount of extra locations or paths in said maps which not only gives incentive to explore but also great annoyance to your strike team as you wander off alone thinking yourself a one man army who dropped their guard down for a crate. The dense clusters of bodies hitting the floor make even the abandoned sewer tunnels feel so alive and full of thrill.

The music is the perfect mix of stress and pure empowerment from the emperor himself, all the chanting and techo-instrumentals really perfect the atmosphere of the game whether our team walked like inquisitors or desperately sunk their claws into their own spirit to survive the hounds and snipers, the only dullness came from the inpatient need to kill as we walked through sparsely populated buildings and tunnels to our trials of faith.

Ideally this is an epic Warhammer experience for those who love slaying heretics but without all the space marines making it look easy.

Character creation is pretty awesome if you like the roleplay feel of having this character from the fallen remains of Cadia or a previous guard from a shrine world, their lives growing up, what potential crime may have brought them to the end of the line. The actual character looks themselves feel pretty tasteful towards the grim dark fantasy, the damage of living in the dark imperium is evident in its own right but that only adds to the fantasy for me.

Sprinting in this game feels a little slow in comparison to the large maps themselves, and often stamina is quickly eaten up. Dodging however feels a lot more fluid than in Vermintide 2, making for some pretty amazing plays during a tough moment.

The combat itself is pretty fun, although I have only played between a skullbreaker and a zealot so far, not having tested the other two classes in the game. In general shooting felt nice and melee was thrilling, especially since the zealot has a lot to gain from these exact risky plays being able to restore toughness so quickly and get free critical hits like no heretic has ever seen.

The current incentives to play have been upped since the first days of launch, given new customization and weaponry, as well as prestige and perks for ranking up. They also have updated missions, difficulties, modifiers, and some spawn tweaks. You will not be missed, army of poxhounds.

Real improvements have been added to the game, and it's not fair to ignore this before continuing on. In fact I have a genuine belief this game is headed towards greatness over more work, FatShark has a bit of reputation of needing time to improve their games and I enjoy so far what I could play of this game.

The biggest issue I have seen continue on since launch however relate to the servers. I was eager to see how Darktide had been coming alone and decided to play for a few hours. I had created a new character because I felt it'd be a more fair review to actually start from the bottom and grind up again, get the new stuff under my belt. I had been able to participate in two missions since I had created my character, the first took me a total of 10 minutes to finally connect to. I was excited when the chatbox appeared, and instead of joining the fight I stayed for roughly 15 more minutes watching a black screen. I could do nothing, access no menu, no spawn or visual changes for the entire mission period. By the time the mission ended, I was rewarded for the success of the mission, that which I literally could not play. I heard the music change, two weird bars appeared glitched out and distorted on the side of my screen until I was sent back to the hub.

I was displeased but continued on nevertheless. The next mission I had tried to join I got a similar result, my game having froze in the attempt to join. After about 10 minutes I decided to restart the game, and finally it seems to be going well. Instant connect, character loaded quickly, was able to queue for a match. I joined after about five minutes, I was excited to finally kill some heretics. Immediately our team noticed a bunch of the heretics had spawned but were not moving, rows of bodies standing before us. We thought short of it and killed, the game resumed as normal. After a bit our psyker went down, we went to revive him and suddenly he was kicked. He managed to rejoin a few minutes later, but like clockwork the second he went down he disappeared again. He was able to join for a third time, before he suddenly disappeared, unable to continue connecting to the server. I also suffered from the lag for some time, we almost made it to the end when suddenly I was disconnected and sent back to the Mourningstar.

I decided to try one more time with a new class new character, I decided to go Sharp Shooter and join another game. Much to my surprise it was only a few minutes and for most of the game everything had been great. We actually managed to make it to the drop zone and succeeded in our mission. Then began being stuck on the winning screen for several minutes, unable to escape and go back to the hub. I almost thought to close the game and restart it but randomly I finally got the rewards and sent back to the hub, I was happy to look at my new weapons but by then my patience had been exhausted.

The servers ever since the beta phase have been struggling hard to hold their ground. I absolutely understand that in beta there were not so many people trying to play at once, and of course by selling the game you have to accommodate to handle the payload of new people eager to grind hours into the game. In the beginning this was natural and to be expected, and even after some time the servers have slowly been more functional and capable, such is evident that I can even make it to the hub where getting beyond the start screen was uncertain earlier on. But the ability to get to these maps and blow through heretics is consistently challenging in itself.

Being suddenly ripped from missions, not being able to join before a mission is completed, having difficulty joining servers period, and being able to have a reliably smooth experience of eradicating heresy spawn are all things that ultimately keep the game in this between zone of good and bad. So much of this game is golden like the throne, but the parts that are not are obvious like Nurgle's decay.

If you are easily turned off by server problems, this game is not yet ready for you. If you like killing heretics and love the grimdark warhammer artstyle and lore, it's still an awesome game when it works. When the servers begin to operate well and I can dig deeper into the flesh of this game, I will eagerly update to reflect the better state of the game as much as all that I love about it.

If you are like me and prefer to be alone than to be with lots of people, fret not Gmod can still be fun for you.

The developing of the Zeta Players mod, and its great customization, can make any map feel more alive and organic all without the actual human beings being apart of it.

Pretty much all I need to say. Good game

There is already an overwhelming amount of content out their for this game for you to watch, read, etc. to get a feel for the game

But specifically what I would like to say I love about this game is that you can play pretty much however you enjoy. If you really like PVP there are hardcore servers, many with limits on groups or even down to being solo if you'd like that type of fairer one on one gameplay, or you can hop on a server without limits which offer the most raw version of rust with its craziness. And even then, some servers like to blend it with optional PVP, or faction PVP, hell there is even a server that specifically runs quick PVP raids like a minigame

Or if you think you wouldn't like PVP, PVE is also equally out there and populated in community servers. They can be really relieving if you find the normal gameplay a bit rough, or just don't enjoy that type of gameplay especially given how wipes are a defining feature of the game. Whether you like roleplay or just being hermits in peace, there's a good server for you out there, one where you can play at your own pace if that's your thing

And the modded servers offer a whole lot of twists to the normal gameplay, such as zombie mode which is admittedly one of my favorite mods for the game, or others that simply plaster a bunch of NPCS everywhere, others that give immense loads of more loot so you can focus on building or constant pvp as you please, this game appeals to quite a bit of people and the community is really much to thank for this.

If you don't mind losing your progress every month (this is one of the few parts of the game that is unavoidable due to the constant flow of updates), this game might easily eat many of your hours. Players come from all over the world, never a dull community anywhere.

My stance of this game lies with feeling as though my purchase was not fulfilling, though that is simply due to preference and is no way supposed to mean I simply find this game concept bad.

What I do like about the game is the style, I am a sucker for pixel art and any game with it piques my interest.
I like that there is grindable content, as someone who likes to 100% stuff sometimes, which fits extremely well with how easy it is to pick the game up and make progress within minutes.
I especially appreciate the fact the devs have chosen to not be predatory with monetization unlike most games from the mobile market (mentioning this as this concept has already existed on mobile for a while, this is pretty much that but with a different face).

What I do not enjoy is the fact this game is extremely simple and repetitive. I prefer more complexity, features, mechanics, this game is basically just Hostile Walking: The Game. While there are items and bonuses, this game is a lot less about strategy than it is picking random buffs from time to time and seeing if you can survive longer than the enemies can get harder to kill. You could really just click on random buttons when prompted and have just as much of an experience as the guy choosing his upgrades carefully.

I would not ask for a refund as it was entirely a choice I was willing to make to see if the game is what I had taken it for and the price is pretty cheap as it is, but it is disappointing to be proven right by the gameplay. I personally would prefer more depth, but then I think that would mess with the core that is what helps this game be so addictive and fun for many.


TL;DR This game is extremely simple and easy to pick up. Good for many, not for some

I had not played this game all too much despite owning it for a while, it was pretty difficult to get into and had some complex crafting. Not all of it was bad, just a decent amount seemed clunky and out of the way to understand. The graphics especially weren't anything too impressive, they fit the role but this game is seeing far prettier days.

Now everything has high quality textures, the crafting system has been majorly simplified, and combat in general feels a lot more fun. Building especially feels a lot easier to work with and manage, even during blood moons where I can only blame myself for not preparing ahead.

It's way more of a horror game on your own, but with even just one other person it becomes a beat em up. Just share the magazines!

A tip to new survivors on the way: water is life, and diarrhea is the opposite. Get a pot and a bucket while you can...

Tries to pretend to be a cool game with lots of stuff to do and stuff to build, is secretly a ticking time bomb for future gambling addicts

This is one of few of my all time favorite games. It is what all indies would aspire to be, especially given that one moment this was just a quiet release by passionate but few developers after years of work that ended up having a total explosion in popularity.

But the not so quiet portions of the community also forget or do not even know these things, and they are typically unusually harsh or even toxic towards the developers as they, NOT developers, do not realize the actual time and effort that goes into making such a great game, especially when this started off as a passion project. It is undeserved, more so given the fact this game already has so much in it to do and fight. It's fortunate for us the developers still plan to add to the game, for that I am grateful that it is not suddenly abandoned and left for dead.

The building in this game is slow, it can even be frustrating to try so hard to get something to stand early game, but the feeling of solving your physical limits is just perfect. I never have enough resources as I am always trying to expand my territories, fortify my fortresses, and masterfully shape the landscape to my liking. Even with portals, I prefer to make entire roads between my destinations as it feels more fulfilling to shape the world around me to my liking, and Valheim does a fine job allowing this. The freedom to build is also some of the most intuitive I have ever seen in a game like this; as I always say, this takes my favorite part of Rust and expands way ahead of it, without all the other stuff to care about.

The grind is without a doubt one of the slower feels, as it can feel dreadful to chop down dozens of trees over and over and over at the start of the game. That said, I like this because it means I can watch a show in the background, totally zoning out as I grind away without issue while catching up on stuff I didn't have time for otherwise.

The amount of extra activities to keep the player occupied greatly enhance my fun in the game; while there is a story and bosses to fight, just like any big game it feels great doing NOT the main objective the most. Gardening, animal taming, ellaborate building, mead brewing, food cooking, bee keeping, item forging, metal works, and still more to do, I love it. It's not overwhelming in the slightest, and it's laid out fairly simple.

The bird acts as a constant tutorial, but because of the free nature of its interactions, you never feel as though you are wasting time having to focus on it. You can even just speed through it's texts if you already played, or just flat out ignore the thing as it doesn't randomly force your attention on any cutscenes or so on, you can literally just walk away from it in the middle of dialogue and it will reappear later. If you skipped an important tutorial you also auto log everything, so that information is always with you.

The biomes provide very decent amounts of content, enemies, resources, and dungeons to crawl through. Just be mindful to come equipped well or face the harshness of zones you weren't built to take on. Don't worry though, when you die everything is stored in a neat little grave, and upon picking your stuff up, you will get the ability to run fast on minimal stamina, allowing you to retreat and get to safety. The system is forgiving yet harsh enough to keep you on your toes

Combat in this game is quite fun and it comes with plentiful weapons to advance your skills in, though switching main weapons can feel painful if you had not be training across the board; my advice is to use the right weapon for the right enemy to always improve your experiences.

The pixelated style comes off extremely cozy and warm, although it can certainly turn cold, lonely, and unsettling given the right weather or environment, a total win in my books. The shader effects thrown in also do well to hide the obviousness of the style, though I like it absolutely either way

The feeling of discovery and exploration are very finely developed, although it is sad I can never get the same feeling of finding a new wood, or discovering metal for the first time, etc. Fortunately, it does still feel good to progress right back into those zones on new characters, especially once you realize how much harder it is to jump into those zones that it initially appears; progress in this game is fulfilling, if not slow

Overall fantastic game, I look forward not only to the progressing in this games development, no matter how slow as it is clear they are dedicated. I even hope they add a supporter DLC so I can let the devs know I greatly appreciate their work. They deserve the resources.

Certainly a good game concept, nice art style, but it is clear all the real love is within the combat itself

That being said, even it has faults such as severe balancing issues. Plenty of weapons become useless in later stages, some are consistent, and others magically seem to turn into mini deathstars in your hand. Add the various random character factors you'll be able to build with you can become so broken nothing could hope to stop you, or waste your time trying to force dog feces out of a cat

I also absolutely support indie devs where I can, but whether or not the DLC is worth the price is questionable, especially given the rather limited content contained within them. While on the cheaper end, the studio seems quite quick to pick up new projects, neglecting ones they've already pushed out. This wouldn't be so bad if the DLC they sold had more meat to chew. I'd take caution jumping the gun, but I sincerely hope they stay with this game longer than other titles.

Brilliant co-op, looter shooter elements are appealing, and death is rather forgiving. The perks could use a touch up, but they are nevertheless fun to play with. I actually hope they experiment with it more as it blends well with the normal gameplay

I think the maps are a bit repetitive, as limiter as they are, but the rest of the gameplay more than makes up for this.

Overall good game. If you like fast dungeon crawling, differing levels in difficulty, as well as rougelike elements, you'll probably love this game. If you found RoR2 particularly harsh, this may be a great second option for you

Rat Exterminator Simulator

I would seriously love to see these skulls stay, or at least be thrown into the Chaos Wastes. Trying to maintain what I imagine a cocaine addiction feels like is both extremely stressful and spectacularly lethal at the same time. I feel like a speed demon that needs to kill or collect skulls to evade death, but the second it gets slow I feel like I'm dying.

10/10 Blood for the Blood God