Recent reviews by I Like Potatoes <and spies>

I want to like this game and there are some fun aspects to it but some of the decisions the developers have made are rubbing me the wrong way so much I have to leave a negative review until somethings get fixed.

First off, there WAS a demo for the game. Was, as in it did exist. I didn't try it because I didn't think this would be a game I would be interested in until they apparently gave out free copies to some YouTubers several weeks early. Well that marketing worked because the videos I saw made me actually interested in the game. But for whatever reason around the same time they REMOVED the demo from Steam. Why? Why would you ever remove the demo of a game you're about to release? It just frustrated me because I had no real way to know now if it was a game I would want to play besides just buying it. Well I went ahead and decided to buy it anyway, the Rebuild edition which should have everything included. Should. But apparently the cool vehicle advertised as a pre-order bonus only goes out to people who pre-ordered... earlier than sometime? I dunno, all I know is I'm one of the several dozen other people who cannot access it because it shows up as locked with a redirect to the Steam store which doesn't actually work... it just opens the Steam home page. I don't have the option to buy it even with in game currency at all so that's frustrating.

The game play is pretty neat so far though the objectives UI is a little frustrating to navigate and not entirely clear. I had two different objectives and so dived into one to get started on it and start a tutorial. But after starting it I wasn't really able to figure out how to go back and look at the other objective. I eventually got there randomly clicking but the buttons to navigate back I could not tell you. Which is weird because driving isn't as big of an issue and everything UI wise is pretty well laid out and well thought out there.

Graphics are pretty good, even on medium quality. Which is nice because FPS tanks at ultra settings. I don't have a 4090 or anything but I can play games like Star wars outlaws and Cyberpunk 2077 at highest settings and still get better performance so... there's that.

I do hope they fix the issue with the vehicle unlocking or being unlockable down the road. It's 2025, having an exclusive vehicle in a game like this is just... I don't like it. If they want people to be able to pay for it and support them that's fine but just not letting people get it for... reasons? Nope. Don't do that. It just makes people mad. Especially those who are cautious with their money and didn't get a chance to try the game because you removed the Demo a few months before release.

I love Spirit City and was so excited for this DLC. I think it's very nice and adds a lot of cools things. Unfortunately for me, and this may be a small issue that only affects a couple people, but clearly since updating the app now uses a lot more GPU power than it originally did. This is only really a problem because my GPU has something called coil whine or something where it makes a constant, low sharp buzzing when it has a heavy load. For most games this isn't an issue because there's typically loud music or sound effects happening that drown it out. But in a productivity app that I use for quiet or calm sounds and music it is very noticeable. And even when every sounds is muted and the game is just running the whine is still there. I know this is a more personal issue but I don't really have the funds to change my whole computer setup. And the issue didn't exist at all before this DLC. But now with it installed the app is essentially unusable unless I change the resolution scaling very low and the target frame rate low as well. I'm not sure what was added in this DLC that makes the GPU work so hard, but I think until there are more options to turn things off or lower them to avoid this kind of problem I can't fully recommend this DLC. It made one of my go to productivity apps completely unsuable now :/

I gotta start by saying I'm a huge, huge fan of the Half-Life series and pretty much all the Valve series. I got the Orange box day one because Half-Life changed my life. I was SO excited for this remake just to be able to play my literal favorite game of all time with awesome graphics. I've even volunteered multiple times to be part of the project and work on it (For Free) but never received any sort of response.

First, I'm disappointed this is only two levels: Ravenholm and the prison area. I get for a tech demo using these iconic area with the most visual variety and coverage. But for it to be released as a playable demo it's kinda underwhelming.
Yes, I am using a 3080 gpu which apparently is on the low end of their recommendation for a graphics card. But it's really weird to me that it is, considering when the project STARTED the highest end graphics would be the 40 series. 50 series hadn't even been announced but now it seems like they developed most of the graphics to target it on the higher end. Even the 40 series isn't rated for the highest possible settings according to their own charts which is absolutely bizarre to me.

Even on medium or performance I can get some decent frame rates but the smearing is excessive and just kinda ruins the experience. Standing still when it isn't trying to interpolate the frames some of the graphics look great... up close. There's some sort of heavy LODing going on and it's pretty clear when models very close to you aren't actually the highest level detail one, even though it's clearly in my line of sight and close enough for me to be able to see details.

It feels like they're pushing hard for some sort of hardware stress test example with poor optimization rather than a true passion project based on the Half-Life series. They clearly need a LOT of help getting it to something playable, which is frustrating since apparently they don't respond to people with experience in these kind of things even though they provide a form to volunteer on their website. As someone who has replayed the entire half-life series more times than I can count, who has been patiently hoping for Half-life 3 since the Orange box, who loves everything about the game I sincerely cannot recommend this game or even really say it's enjoyable. I think they updated some sound effects, the guns sound a bit different. Yeah some of the models are a bit higher poly. But because they're relying so heavily on this new experimental graphics system instead of just trying to improve the graphics through traditional game dev methods it's an overall lackluster experience. The whole DLSS things should be an added luxury for people with high end, excessively expensive computers to be able to enjoy. It shouldn't be the core foundation that the whole game runs on. There should still be a version that is optimized for lower end machines that just has updated models and textures. But this isn't it. I've seen mods without backing by nvidia or some major company that do a much better job.

This is going to take a while before it's anywhere good.

This is rough, I really wanted to like and enjoy this game. Unfortunately the controls and UI are just so incredibly difficult to use and navigate that I can't have fun while playing. The camera sensitivity is incredibly high but the slider in the settings menu doesn't actually change it at all. The only way to fix it is to manually adjust the DPI on my mouse. But then different parts of the game have slightly different control schemes and different camera sensitives so I spend more time than I should have to adjusting mouse DPI just to be able to play. The UI is okay but frustrating at times. There are technically markers for where you should go next but they disappear if you're facing directly towards them and too far away. So you end up having to look in the wrong direction back and forth to tell if you're going the right way. The tutorial isn't always clear and doesn't really give you great feedback on what you're doing is right and why exactly you're doing it. There's a great amount of complexity but they could have gotten away with less and it would have been more enjoyable.

Frankly, I enjoy simulator style games. I love the farming sims, gas station simulator, I could go on and on about the different type of sim games I like. The difference between what makes a game like this boring and a game like powerwash simulator fun is for me the controls. I don't have to think about the controls in a game like power wash simulator or gas station simulator. But here I have to figure out so much with fixing my mouse, figuring out where specific buttons and things are, I haven't really gotten to the point of founding out how to play the game. If they ever fix the controls this game would be much, much better.

Second Update: I'm finally changing my review to a Yes after an initial tentative no. The servers were a serious issue that prevented me from even starting the game. Now though they seem much more stable and I can easily play a couple games in a row without issue. The matchmaking is a little weird... I'd say 9/10 if I try to join another random session it fails but if I start one myself people seem to be able to join me no problem.

The gameplay itself is fun and it's really a game better enjoyed if you don't take anything too seriously. There's not much punishment or consequence for doing poorly on a mission or dying without extracting at the end. You get a few extra points if you do well but otherwise I feel like I get pretty even and consistent progression no matter what happens. I'm enjoying learning about the different weapons. I still think there needs to be much more explanation on things, especially on mission objectives. Markers and explanations are nearly non-existent and you basically either know what to do or you don't. I've had multiple lobbies where teammates just end up fighting endlessly spawning enemies in some random spot because they don't realize there are other objectives or locations to go to. Otherwise this is a fun game and well worth the price. I bought the deluxe version more out of support than for the extra goodies. I don't think there is much extra benefit to the items you get over the base version honestly.

Update: I finially was able to load up the game. Apparently the server issue also relates to the black screen and the game won't even load the initial video and options screens if it cannot even connect to servers? That's a really, really bad design.

Gameplay: It's pretty fun. There's a lot to figure out. You do go through a basic tutorial that teaches you much of the basic controls but there's a lot when you get into the actual lobby that you have to figure out on your own. I get the going for the online co-op but I feel like that's a huge hindrance to this game so far. I got one mission in, was confused at first because apparently I was in control but I didn't know what exactly to do because there aren't any prompts currently to help you figure it out. Randomly pressing buttons and just waiting for the count down it eventually launched the mission.

We did an escort mission, the only problem was there wasn't any explanation or prompts explaining how it works or what you do. It wasn't until near the end that I realized one of the more experienced players in our team had been pressing a button that calls in npcs to be escorted... something that is literally never explained or put on your HUD at all. It wasn't in the initial tutorial... you just have to know what to do.

Completed the mission, went back to the ship which is like the lobby hub and one of the players in our group went AFK. So we couldn't launch another mission because he would never ready up. Eventually found out there was a kick option.

Personally, I think the game is great, has a lot of character and was pretty well made. But the heavy focus on online co-op seriously holds it back from being great. This is a hesitant No, think about 5.5 out of 10 for me. I wish they would have a bit more focus on singleplayer because in a couple months when the hype fades away a game based solely on online multiplayer is going to be dead with basically no replay value.

It's rare for me to have nearly an hour of playtime in a game I literally haven't even played yet. First time starting up it worked fine, server were full so I sat for a bit letting it retry but no luck. Had to alt+f4 because for some reason they thought it was a good idea to have the game try connecting to a server before letting you open any sort of menu or have a quit button to actually try again later.
Still excited I've tried over a dozen times now to start the game and just get... nothing. It's just a black screen. After working fine the first two times the game doesn't even try to load now. I don't know what's wrong with it, verified the game files three times, checked the setting files to make sure it wasn't in full screen, nothing works. It'll randomly work maybe one out of a dozen times and then I just get stuck on the error screen about servers being full.

If you are a developer please for the love of GOD always give me the main menu screen before trying to connect to servers. Even if I cannot load progression or anything, at least give me the option to do the training level that I know you're going to throw me into offline while I wait. I'd rather have a menu with the button to quit the game available while trying to get into a game than just have an application that I have to hard quit out of with windows commands.

I'll change my review if the game ever gets better. Honestly if it wasn't for all the hype I would have given up already and refunded this, because this is not a good first impression for a game.

For anyone having issues with not getting all available resolutions like I had, to save you the 30 minutes I spent scrolling through dozens of Steam Discussion forum pages the fix that worked for me was setting Window's Scale and Layout to 100% under the System settings for your PC. Apparently if you have it set differently (I keep it at 125% for easier reading) then it literally won't give you the option to change to 1920x1080 or most other resolutions. The max I could get was 1366x768 which makes the text nearly unreadable.

I really wanted to like this game. Seriously, I played the farmer's dynasty game and had fun. This was just a headache from the outset. I should be able to set the resolution easily from the beginning. Turn off the "Auto detect" crap dev, seriously. No other game I've played has ever had so many issues with just trying to set up the resolution. The game itself isn't terrible but it doesn't feel different enough from the farmer's dynasty game for me to enjoy it. The graphics are okay, the gameplay is a bit.... tedious. And I like sim style games a lot, so saying that a sim is tedious is not great.

I really wanted to like this and I wish there were more options than just yes or no. Unfortunately I have to say no on this one. It just got so many things wrong.

Very fun and calm game to get into! I like the slight minecraft/ Teardown aesthetic and getting to build train tracks and stations is a lot of fun. The instructions are pretty simple and the game is easy to understand and get started playing. I love the music as well and the sound effects when you do something right hit the right spot for encouraging me to keep going :)
A fun and casual game that's pretty addicting and a good way to past the time without any real stress or headaches.

I am just barely on the not recommended side. I love electricity, I’ve rewired wall outlets and wiring in my house, I’ve worked with integrated circuits and build small circuits in real life. I was looking forward to a sim that would bring me back to those experiences I really enjoyed. This came close but there’s just so many bugs and it’s way too short. There have been multiple times when I get frustrated because you can only turn an outlet one way to keep working on it, or somehow the UI doesn’t work, or sometimes I’ve just gotten stuck because the UI disappeared and wouldn’t come back. And some levels have unique challenges but they’re completely new with absolutely no hints and no mention of how to complete them. Like in one level you suddenly had to replace light bulbs in a string of colored lights which you had never done before in the game. It was impossible to find this out on my own though because the spot where you interact was so tiny it never brought up the UI until I found a guide that showed me where to look.
I think the most disappointing thing is that there were so few levels and so few gadgets. And now they’ve released more but as a DLC? I know how hard it is working on a game and developing it, but I’m sick of having to buy additional DLCs for games that don’t feel finished. I really would have preferred if that price was factored into the original price. And without the ability to make any sort of procedural levels or custom levels to increase the playability I don’t really want to replay this game at all.

I wanted to like this game, there's a lot there. The main issue is the controls and odd bugs that exist which I'm surprised haven't been fixed by now. There's a lengthy tutorial phase at the beginning which goes over a lot, but there's so much more that it doesn't cover or even start to touch on that you need to learn on your own. Normally I like that in a game, but in this game if you make to many mistakes you can get soft locked and have to start over from scratch. One example is I added a new area to my factory to have increased storage space and moved a workstation a little out of the way. Apparently though, even though it was a valid location it was too close to the previous location and my workers could not move it. And for some reason all of them decided they could not perform any work until this workstation was moved. So I had all my workers just sitting around, taking a break with no way to break them out of the loop and no way to manually destroy or remove the station. Apparently when you order a valid move you cannot then cancel it or even just try to sell it and rebuy. An odd bug but not the only one I've seen. There was also a weird bug where in the planning phase if you don't have the appropriate workstation you can click a button underneath to open the buy menu. A few times when I do this though the cursor stays in the same state as the planning menu, and behaves like it is still in there, i.e. I can click on different things but not get the normal context menus or cancel out of it. It's really disappointing because the idea is fun and the game is pretty cool. But the controls are so frustrating and it's so easy to inadvertently make a mistake that can only be fixed by a total restart of the game. I don't know how a game that has been around this long has such serious bugs like this still in it. If you're willing to work through the frustration of difficult controls and a total lack of explanation for game mechanics then this could be a good game. Right now I cannot recommend it though.

A fun and pretty relaxed hospital management sim. Has a lot of quippy humor, punny ailments, and a wide variety of treatments to plan for when building your hospital. The game looks great with funny cartoonish graphics, smooth animations, and variety of different decorations for your hospital. The game moves along at a good rate, keeping you just enough on your toes with new types of patients that you don't sit around too long. Overall I'd give it an 8/10.