Recent reviews by Rustle

Tarkov but not ass? Pretty much. It will probably not make you ♥♥♥♥ your pants in anger because some roof camper railed you right before the extract, but it will still make you clench up if you are unprepared for the fight. Very casual friendly extract shooter that treats you well no matter how seriously or not you take it

Buyers beware, Void Interactive might be a team you want to pass on.
Before, they avoided a publisher to avoid censoring the game, as it's about horror and violence special forces encounter.
Since then game went through Early Access, released 1.0, and 2 paid mission packs.
But after all that, a console version is in the works and for that devs will be censoring the game.
The actual changes are minor and not very noticeable, minor tweaks to nudity and no dead body dismember.
But the problem is the approach. Something is being removed/hidden from the game because YEARS LATER, something changes for the devs. Though game is not in EA anymore and tens of thousands of PC players are already owners. A great example of how bad modern "always online" development can be. Even worse, in this case they are doing so to be able to sell the game on consoles. And they will not keep PC version separate because it's extra work and supposedly would impair cross play.

Treat this review as Mixed, because in context of Frostpunk 1, this game is closer to a 6.5/10. It's not as good as the original, but when on sale could be a decent grab by the time all DLCs are out for a city builder enjoyer.
It's very much an example of streamlining and shifting focus going too far and shedding the unique aspects of the franchise. Very reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon 1 vs 2, where fan of the original wont hit the same vibes with the sequel.
The setting and atmosphere are still there, the music is not as great but holds it's own. But that's about it for absolute upsides.
Food and Heat simplified, no heat zones, buildings became ambiguous districts, and while you are free to build anywhere (not entirely, you need to Frostbreak the map out of snow) building loses a lot of gravitas and interest. Roads are automatic decorations, no citizens visible unless using special cinematic zoom button on a building, no automatons. Ironically there is a monetary currency for politics and research, but also to build. So despite game telling you in 20 years ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ happened and New London is just falling apart, your freezing citizens won't build themselves a shelter unless you also pay the money cost.
Part of the campaign involves mandatory control of multiple cities at the same time (full control just like London) which could be a huge pain in the ass, and not necessarily what you want from Frostpunk.
The politics are okay, your mileage may vary depending on you liking extra punishment, on high diff it's not easy to be moderate. But it looks like you can repeal most laws this time.
Freebuild is thankfully present, with 7 maps leaning into different resources/visuals.
Overall, I would agree with it being weirdly close to a Mobile Game. Broad strokes. Loss of details and personality.
The summary of changes and new elements in gameplay, presentation, tasks, systems leaves you with not quite Frostpunk, even if the names and the world tells you it is, but also not being quite enough to be good type of different.

The classic strategy game is back, and in a good way.
For those who never played it - its a medieval real time strategy with a focus on castle on castle siege combat. Its quite compact and easy to understand with its basic production chains and simple units, but has good skill expression through optimizing speed and position of everything you manage. There is no tech tree ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or special ability showdown. All players have access to same tools.
Its very atmospheric and charming despite its simplistic isometric visuals, with lovely Medieval England aesthetics, great music, sound design and voices.
There is a decent variety of content and challenge - you got the main story, siege missions, economic missions and free build. There is no PvE skrimish setup like they had in Stronghold Crusader, but they never said it would be added, so its just a bit of a shame.
Regardless, now that its plugged into Steam Workshop, for just 15 bucks you get a great RTS experience that can be great fun for either those evenings after work or gathering friends for some PvP on the weekend

Amogus

A cheap, but cute and entertaining time killer, except instead of it being an ad-infested mobile asset flip, it's on your computer. Looks great, sounds great, and has all our favorite Japanese components - schoolgirls, panties, Shiba Inu dogs, cats and generic Japanese neighbourhoods.

I have been playing this game for years now, feels great for it to be on Steam and be reinvigorated, as playerbase dwindled over the years and it was always only about word of mouth for people to find out about it in the first place. When I heard about it in 2013, I thought it was a meme.

This game is just good, no matter what type of entertainment you seek.

If you are more into serious stuff, you can find standart Bomb and Hostage games with round death and economy and stuff, with a twist that top-down view gives (firing blindly, fog of war, etc.)

If you want some twists, it can be a completely different game, just with visuals of CS. Construction modification of a gamemode, where everyone has a wrench and can build and upgrade several types of buildings, often resulting in hour long CTF matches. CTF matches by themselves, Zombies, Free for all and Team Deathmatches. Unique equipment like mines, RPG's, Lasers, Portal guns etc.

On top of that, in-game eidot and Lua scripting provides more stuff by the community, minecraft maps, deathruns, PROP HUNTS (really fit in this game) roleplay and other stuff.

Game looks good for indie, has gorgeous particles, can run on a potato.

This is not a serious game to spend a lot of time in for sure. Even Standart servers are free to leave whenever. But if you know there is a spare half-hour - hour in your schedule, or even just some 15 min breaks that you need to fill in with some genuine fun, get this game, it's fast to install and it's free. It takes a bit to get used to, to learn new modes, but it certainly provides that fast and easy fun factor of "pocket games". Some less-mainstream modes have faded out, but it's up to you, call some friends and fill the servers again.

Oh right, no lootboxes.

This is honestly a ridiculously good deal while its on 50% sale, simply because of the Platinum. You would have to pay 100$ to get 2100 plat and 2 mediocre mods on official website normally to get close to this. Here you can get decent amount of credits and 3 adapters which are a chore and grind to get normally on top of that. Vigor is probably the best mod here, others dabatble, but combined with the 30 random mods its still some Endo or Plat if you trade. Excalibur skin is decent, and if you have free time after purchase, 3 day boosters can propell your progress quite a bit.

Naturally the maximized value of this pack depends on how sparingly and efficiently will you use the things it gives you (not using adapters on warframes you will eventually sell is a start), for a rational newcomer or a knowledgeable mid-tier player this will be a huge aid, and for veterans it's just a crazy good Platinum and adapter deal.

If this pack is ever on 50%+ sale and you play Warframe with dedication, grab yourself one for sure.

So people found out that game is getting paid chest/box/whatever you want to call it, 2.50$ to supposedly support a Gamescom Tournament and some charities. That would be alright if we weren't talking about this particular game in this particular situation. So here are the reasonable problems people have with it.

-It was promised that there will be NO monetization at all during Early Access period
-Game sold 5 million copies and just exploded in popularity WITH ZERO PR, a console port is being worked on. So much revenue made and they require additional funds to have a mediocre tourney at a gaming event? (such tourneys are most often low quality and small in scale)
-Game has a price. It's a POPULAR pay2play game, and the price will amost certainly increase after EA.
-Game has a working Steam Market. This means that they get a cut of every item bought and sold there, meaning even more revenue.
-Early Access game in a wonky state being pushed into competitive scene. Any kind of Early Access game being pushed into competitive scene really.
-Game, while being somewhat playable, has still piles of problems, from servers and optimization to bugs, to updates breaking ♥♥♥♥ every week. And instead of major improvements that would make me feel like it was worth to support an unfinished product, you give me this.
-The paid crates will require current BP currency to buy and then purchase a key with $ to open them. They contain multiple sets of themed clothes, but you only get a single piece per box (only jacket, only shoes etc.) You can get duplicates on top of that.
-Yet another game, where instead of a simple store where you could buy an item or bundle of items YOU WANT directly, even for real money, we get gambling, which milks all types of customers because you only have a CHANCE of getting what you want.
-Team stated that all the crates after EA will be paid. Meaning that you will likely have zero ways to earn yourself even some basic different colour shirts with in-game currency, like you can right now.

I enjoyed the game before this, and I was really happy to have a decent multiplayer experience of arena type last-man-standing despite constant performance problems, and it having to extra microtransactions and cosmetics being earned at decent rate was a huge upside. As it is right now I feel major regret, as it's going the standart overhyped EA money milking route.

If you planned to buy this game, you can try but be ready to refund as you will need to spend some time to make it run at 60 fps before you can even have a full match. Preferably check back in ~3 months and see if microtransactons were worth it.

Before a swarm of angry people floods the reviews: Yes they made DLC content from Season Pass free after a year.

No that is not an entirely bad thing.
It's in the name, right? SEASONAL pass. A season has passed and if you bought the DLC you had your fill, and just like many other types of goods, game's losing it's economical value, player count drops, hype disspiates and price goes down. Nothing unusual.

I do admit it feels somewhat unethical, but you had your *season* of content. Also, multiplayer DLC are the worst kind anyway (hello CoD), and now it will both bring in new players and not separate them content-wise in the multiplayer part of the game. If you truly love the game and are thankful to developers for an amazing experience (which it was), then rather than being angry you should be happy because it will get more recognition and you can have a second go at the multiplayer with the increased playerbase.

As for those dying for a refund, here is a simple example. You come to electronics store and want them to refund you your phone you bought from them 2 years ago at the price you bought it back then and not current price (probably all of you realize smartphone prices change faster than mood of your sister when she is on her period). Further more you notice a leather case that you had to buy back then separately is now included in the initial purchase. Can you do anything? Not really. Time devalues goods, it's the law of the market.

And once again, instead of being angry, be happy that such a good game will get more attention (which increases chances of a sequel) and go have fun in the multiplayer.