Recent reviews by Onahara

Solid soundtrack to a great game.

Quality of the soundtrack is good, it's the same music you know and love from the game.

Comes with audio files you can transfer onto your phones playlist, though there are only a couple pieces that would fit on normal playlists. Most of the songs give off strong videogame vibes

I've payed more money for less music before so this was p worth it to me for $10

So this is actually a really really well made game for this genre so I thought I would write a review.

I'd like to begin this review with some organization, ill be talking about what I believe are the 3 most important criteria to do with Survival Horror games, and why this game fulfills the conditions of each.

#1 - Atmosphere.

The atmosphere of a game is how it feels. This is the general vibe you get from something. A good atmosphere feels genuine, immersive, and encourages focus and attention (In this genre, at least). This is typically achieved through worldbuilding, ambient sound, visuals, and other methods of immersing the player in the moment.

Atmosphere is especially important for the survival horror genre as it creates a sense of tension. It allows the player to feel real fear and surprise, and it creates a sense of mystery and intrigue that makes the game interesting.

In the case of atmosphere, I would praise [Sorry We're Closed] quite highly.

Not only is the atmosphere of the game immersive and genuine feeling, but the writers in this game have a good grasp of how and when to shift the atmosphere. Sometimes this shift will be abrupt, sometimes it will be gradual, always it will be well executed.

The overall world is charming, and the worldbuilding feels natural and satisfying. The story is not shoved into the players face, despite the linear nature of the game. Gameplay, music, and visuals all tie in with eachother to create consistent and strong feelings, and the pacing leaves the player feeling fresh and interested at all times. This is consistent throughout the game, and thus the overall atmosphere never dulls.

#2 - Gameplay.

Gameplay is important for the survival horror genre both as a method of delivering the story, and as a way of simply creating a fun game. Survival horror games are a balancing act between resources and risks, and they usually play our rather slowly most of the time. You will be measuring how much ammo you have, how many medical items you have, and how good you are at all times. You have to get through the level saving as much as possible, usually in preparation for a more exciting or more action focused boss fight. This only happens more and more often as one nears the end of the game and acquires their complete arsenal.

In between the action, you will be solving puzzles, learning about the world, interacting with NPC's, searching for secrets, and looking for items.

[Sorry We're Closed] plays a lot like a classic survival horror that has been polished down as smooth as possible using modern day techniques. The game rewards players for conserving their equipment and fully exploring each area, and the players are presented with a variety of puzzles to both advance the story and to find secrets/supplies. In this way the game plays out in a way that will feel nostalgic to lovers of the genre.

[Sorry We're Closed] excels in how it ties modern technique and quality into gameplay that still feels nostalgic. First of all, the hitbox of the player character is very well spaced, allowing for tight dodges and maneuvering using a classic feeling system of movement.

The switch between fixed camera to first person allows for more action focused combat, and personally I feel this brings a lot of life to the game. If players would rather take things slow, they can play the resource game and fight from a distance. If they prefer a more fast paced fight, they can utilize a system which rewards the player for allowing monsters to get in close to them to save their resources (put possible create more reasons to use them!). This also allows for some pretty fun boss fights.


#3 Story -

The story in a survival horror game is paramount. Not only does the plot of the game propel the character forward through their experience, it gives meaning to the actions we take and lets us connect with the game we are playing.

Without spoiling much, the story in this game is amazing. Its fresh, fun, interesting and intense all at the same time. Each character in this game has multiple layers behind them, and you will struggle to find anybody who is as they seem at first.

Each and every character is likable in their own way because they are all characters that the game spends time allowing us to empathize with and understand.

Like most games, some characters are mean. Some characters are kind. Some characters are helpful. Some characters hinder and annoy you. Unlike most games however, these characters do not feel like they are designed to fulfill a set role in [Sorry We're Closed]. Each character wears many hats, functions in many ways, and has their own intricate story. Because of this the player can come to like and understand just about all of the characters in this game quite easily! Each NPC feels very human and unique.

I also simply have a special spot for stories that mix slow-burning themes with explosive plot developments like this!

First of all the game is a bit dead, 2-4 minute queue times just to get the same person as last match.

Progress is ♥♥♥♥♥♥. This is really hammered in by the card leveling system, you need 300+ some odd matches (Im just going by my account, and those are on a 90+% win rate) to even remotely get a deck going. I played at launch so I was able to lvl with everybody else but I cant even IMAGINE what it would be like now.

You will get in match, play a card that makes the enemy slower by 10%, and they will play that EXACT same card but it will be over twice as powerful (slowing you over 20%). Since the queue is very likely to put you against vet players this will be what happens every match

Also takes a bit to get a good character.

No time limit on matches means that there is no reason to ever make the first move, or any incentive to play aggressive characters or use aggressive cards. This really harms gameplay since its common for sitting matches

Meta is pretty boring, its all about turret placements, debuffs, and 1-shot attacks. Usually luck of the draw is everything. People rotate between the same 3 characters and decks (No reason not too, they are simply the most powerful)

First maps in the base game were amazing but new maps have progressively gotten lazier and more stale. Even just having them in rotation ruins the atmosphere and game balance.

An extreme amount of love was put into this game and id keep an eye out for more installations like this by them in the future that are a bit more polished. Kinda worth a buy if you have friends

As far as smooth single player experiences this game is unmatched. Ill start with whats bad and go from there.

Plot - Well I wont lie is uninspiring at times, and a bit typical of AC game but that's really not what we are here for. It has some fun twists and great secrets, there is depth, but not too much depth that you find yourself overwhelmed or frustrated figuring things out.

Atmosphere - This is where things pick up, players will feel caught up in the world building, level design, and buildup between bossfights. Really easy to get immersed in this game.

Gameplay - is VERY smooth. A lot closer ranged compared to past AC games but this is really made up for in how much more fluid the movement is in this game. Aiming, shooting, and moving all feel very organic and the player will really enjoy seeing improvement in their own movement as the game goes on.

Customization - Now as far as past AC games there are examples with more customization, however the variety of parts, weapons, and components for your mech is still nothing to scoff at. As far as fine tuning a perfect mech this game is a dream, complete down to being able to adjust the amount of wear and tear vs factory new shine on your paint job. You can not only make a mech that feels intuitive to your playstyle but you can spend hours making it look just perfect.

As a game primarily about mech building, testing, and fighting the updates released so far show that FROMSOFT does have interest in making sure there are viable, different ways to play which is an amazing sign,

PvP is lovely, while it can feel rock paper scissors at times you only really see this in low to mid rank lobbies. People will rage and leave comments on your profile though in ranked though hahaha.

All in all an amazing game, I hope to see some small improvements in the next installation, but really any armored core game after Verdict Day is a blessing :)

One of the most overrated games I have ever played.

Everything is half made. AI is terrible both for allies and enemies. Expect to spend a large majority of cash on crew members that spend the majority of the mission AFK or drowning in shallow puddles. This is what really kills the game and ruins any sense of immersion. You cant take anything seriously, or even really have fun on a mission while your crew needs to be constantly dragged out of the most childish situations.

Probably the best (And worst) example of this?

The AI in this game has A LOT OF TROUBLE opening doors and climbing ladders. Guess what EVERY SINGLE ROOM IN THE GAME HAS?

You will need to spend more time opening doors and switching to other characters just to climb up ladders for them than actually playing the game as intended. The majority of this game is a total time sink where you are doing things that could and should be easily fixed.

AI navigation is terrible, your crew members will freak while out having trouble finding things on your ship. While repairing your ship its very normal for 8+ crew members to get stuck in one spot (for example, a door the AI is not smart enough to open). They then usually drown in a shallow puddle since their work priorities get confused and glitched.

You have to micromanage every single action your crew takes. Instead of coding in a proper priority menu like other crew based games you can only give each crew member up to 3 very broad commands at a time. The majority of this game will be you, in a quick menu, hastily trying to individually command each of your 16 crew members to do commands one at a time. No way to command more than one person at a time really, no way to make them do those commands right away.

Bots will spend so long pathing around the ship the community accepted answer is to just litter your floor with everything the ship needs. This means you have rooms filled with 5+ diving suits you have to waddle through, and thousands of welding tools and oxygen tanks in every single cabinet. Looks extremely messy and the game actually discourages organization in any respect (As the bots have trouble understanding this)

Its quicker to have every single character carry medical supplies, treat their own wounds, and defend themselves than it is to actually use the role system within the ship, and the role system itself is super broken. Most skill trees are either essential, or useless. No in between really. Game fails in every way when it tries to assign roles, its better to just have assistants only at times.

TL;DR - All in all everything in the game is half-baked, half put together, half worked on, and nothing really functions properly. Its got a lot of content that doesn't work as intended and the majority of your time spent in this game will be restarting your mission because it glitched. That "Mission" is just swimming in one direction for 10 minutes. so you can hold in m1 on some rocks for 5 minutes, so you can swim back and hope your crew members have not drown or glitched out while your gone. If they did yay you can restart and spend another 10 minutes driving and swimming in 2D.

Game is only held together by a modding community that puts in more work that the devs, all the positive reviews are from people who mod or play with friends (Which makes literally any game playable, does not mean its worth this much)

Local multiplayer broken.

Trash game

Terribly game sadly, just no real work put into it aside from cash grabs.

As for balance its pretty terrible, the game will queue with only max lvl characters no matter what (And after like a 6 min queue) so if you're just starting out you will only be going up against people with (quite literally) more lives than you, faster movement then you, more utility than you, and better consumable items to give themselves an edge and control which map you spawn on so that its worst for you and best for them.

Furthering from that, the game play is does not play at all as advertised, the killer is pretty slow and weak, there are many ways in which a survivor can overpower them through use of items they brought into the game through being higher lvl, or through use of a pretty crudely designed environment (Jumping back and fourth over ledges, running in circles or abusing character animations, etc...). Aside from that it has a sorta fun, non-engaging playstyle that could be fun if it weren't so meta oriented, sadly the game discourages the player from engaging in the game in their own way, there is very strict meta you gotta follow or people will flame you, and you will lose.

This meta is not in line with it being a horror game either, so the vibes are just super arcade like and non-serious. Imagine a bunch of people sprinting around rapidly flashing flashlights,, purpusefully getting caught and put on meathooks, placing bear traps on peoples feet as they go through animations, etc... game is nothing like the trailer and no stakes or real sense of danger exists. Killer is a joke and both teams know it.

Most of the "playable" characters on the survivors side are actually quite unplayable. They either have perks and abilities that make them leagues above everybody else (offering game changing boons like surviving hits that would otherwise lose you the game, access to dodges or quick heals, or other things that make you virtually unkillable) or their perks are virtually useless and you should not play that character lol. You won't find a lot of variety and you will find yourself playing one of the few meta characters

Its even worst as the hunter sadly, most of the hunters cant be played, plain and simple sadly. Their abilities can end up doing more harm then help, rendering you in a match you are guaranteed to lose. Only super meta builds and strategies will ever give you an edge, and all of them are boring and repetitive as crazy. You don't ever actually feel like you're hunting anybody or anything at all, and the super meta hunters don't even play in such a way as to make the game exciting, they're super point and click + a lot of walking around doing nothing but painfully managing generators and occasionally hunting a survivor. Even when you win it will still feel boring because you know they only lost because they were stupid for not following the really strict meta, and all you did was go through the same motions as the last 40 matches, this one just happened to be a win.

TL;DR

Game takes a massive time investment to get to max lvl and you will be severely disadvantaged until you do, has a super strict and unforgiving meta, and the play style is dry and repetitive with no exiting or new things ever happening.

Might be fun with a group of 5 friends

Honestly a very fun and well made game. Active developers, community outreach, and regular bug patches.

The devs have made sure that any and all my complaints have been fixed or balanced, and have put a lot of time into perfecting a game that they easily could have moved on from by now.

Kudos to them for caring and loving their game, and Kudos to you if you decide to buy it, its a real blast.

Game is way to based off chance. Aliens are landing these bullcrap 27% cross map snipes on me with assault rifles, and I cant even hit them at close range with a shotgun. Its possible to be randomly ambushed by reinforcements who can run through 3 squad men that are all shooting at you, kill your commander, and then everybody in your squad panics and you can do nothing but watch whats esentially just a 5 min cutscene of you being killed.

While I can see why this game could be considered fun, there are to many poorly designed elements for me to enjoy this as much as I enjoyed X-com: Enemy unknown, for example, in this game, rushing the aliens with no plan and giving your squadmen swords seems to be more effective than actual strategy. Its very frusturating.

After 3 years of horrible development, they release DLC. What a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ scam. Screw these devs and everything they stand for. Wish I could get my money back


Aside from this though, ill put my real review below.

The gameplay itself is kind of fun, but thats only because the majority of the people who ussed to still play it refused to use the broken/buggy attacks that would make you nearly auto win the second you cast them, the sword combat is pretty buggy, but it has a solid feel to it and a distinct charm, the main problem though, is that its pretty buggy.

The spells feel like they were implemented without any actual thought on how they would influence your sword combat, and the synergy between spells and sword attacks feels very week, besides a select few spells that is.

Also there are no players anymore, probably because of the reasons listed above, unless you like playing against bots, and only bots, then this is not the game for you.

The devs also seem kind of childish, but I dont really have any other impressions of them to go off of besides them complaining towards people who gave negative reviews.

The new update is silly, they are just adding back an old game mode that never should have been removed.

If im going to be 100% with you, I feel this game would be really fun, even with the bugs, if the devs would actually get involved with the community, maybe organize some events and days where people can log on and know that there will be people to play against, if they did that I would probably give this game a really nice review, but this radio silence (Aside from them complaining to people who right negative reviews) just tells me that they dont care, or are to afraid of looking bad to say anything worth while.

All in all the game itself is not bad, but due to the fact that there are NO players (In fact im writing this whole review in an empty lobby, seeing if anybody will join) I cannot reccomend this game unless you have a while entire lineup of friends ready to buy it as well and play with you. And even then I would only reccomend it on sale.