Recent reviews by TheTrampingPony

Seems to have the same problems that Hell Let Loose suffers from : either servers are full, either empty. Besides, I can't filter servers list.
I can't recommend a game that I'm not able to launch on multiplayer between 9pm and 12pm, unless I rent my own server or enter an empty one. I'm not waiting for hours for a server to make some room

I backed this project in 2020 or 2021 and genuinely enjoyed my time with it during Early Access. Back then, I found a French server run by an amazing admin team (shoutout to the SACHEM team! ^^), who made my experience even better.

However, the development pace quickly became frustratingly slow. At times, we waited over six months for updates, which often turned out to be underwhelming. Some of my friends were convinced the game was on the verge of being abandoned by the developers. Eventually, I stopped playing but kept an eye on its progress from a distance.

Recently, I noticed the game climbing the Steam charts again, which brought it back to my attention. Unfortunately, after watching the trailer and the promotional "live" stream here on Steam, I realized I just can’t see myself getting back into it.

Don’t get me wrong—the additions in version 1.0, like land and water vehicles, fauna, the expanded map, natural medicine, and the day-night cycle, are all fantastic. But we needed those features back in 2021 or 2022 when the game still had momentum. Now, it feels like too little, too late. Moreover, it seems to be still lacking weather !

The game’s engine is outdated, and in 2024, we have titles like Grey Zone Warfare and Tarkov. While they don’t offer the exact same gameplay mechanics (survival, exploration, crafting, base building, raiding, hunting) or setting (a post-apocalyptic Russian open world), they hit similar satisfaction triggers for players. They’re far more visually appealing and provide equally, if not more, thrilling experiences compared to roaming the forests of DeadSide.

At this point, why would players of Rust or DayZ make the switch to DeadSide in 2024?

It just feels like a huge waste and a missed opportunity. The potential was there, but it wasn’t realized in time. It honestly brings me sorrow to see how things turned out.

The gameplay, its scale, the simplistic but enjoyable graphics, the soundtrack, the galactic war (solo) mode and the possibility to PvP, the mod support and the available mod quantity, the community and the system editor make this game still relevant on the RTS stage in 2024, almost 10 years after release.

I just love to send entire moons in the face of the enemy commander, that feels so refreshing.

Not played as much as I wanted for the moment, but I'll work on that. I think I played the former PA game a bit more

Very cool and diverse gameplay, definitely worth the money.
But I'm sorry, my eyes are sore after a few minutes of this art direction. I can't cope with the colors and pixelisation.
It's a good game, works very well to let off some steam, that's why I recommend. But I have to ask a refund.

The lore will resonate with most players, as all the heroes are inspired by classic childhood fairy tales. For example, Little Red Riding Hood transforms into a wolf when she’s angry, Gepetto creates wooden puppets to assist him in battle, the Pied Piper commands an army of attacking rats, and Beowulf is accompanied by a baby dragon. There are nine characters in total—four available at the start and five to unlock.

The gameplay is smooth, offering a great balance of reward, challenge, and fun.

The art style and animations are very reminiscent of Curse of the Dead Gods, featuring a moody yet warm and colorful atmosphere brought to life through cel-shading.

The game supports up to four players and is entirely PvE, filled with magic powers and special abilities.

Matches last between 15-20 minutes for solo play and 45-50 minutes in co-op. Your character levels up with each game (for example, my Beowulf reached level 3 after three games), unlocking new abilities as they progress. You earn significantly more XP when playing co-op, as the matches last longer. On top of the raven feathers mechanism that can revive a hero instantly, remaining players can buy back a fallen companion, which helps a lot.

Games are divided into chapters, each tied to a map. On the map, you'll hunt down packs of monsters and explore crypts to level up your character. Time passes with a day/night cycle, and on the third day, the map’s main boss appears. When this happens, all players are teleported to face the boss. Once defeated, you move on to the next map. Every time your character levels up during a match, you get to choose an upgrade.

Even with all the firepower a full four-player team can bring by the end of the game, it remains well-balanced, and the mobs still provide a worthy challenge.

In conclusion, Ravenswatch is an excellent and refreshing game. It’s somewhat similar to MOBAs in their jungle mob mechanics but is strictly PvE and set in a universe inspired by childhood fairy tales. It’s best enjoyed in 4-player co-op rather than solo.

Finally, I got my hands on it!
It’s exactly what I expected—I love it, totally my style.
You absolutely have to avoid confrontation, you have to go ninja-style... and yeah, half the time, you die.
The art and graphics are fantastic, as expected!
It runs pretty well on my PC—everything's set to ultra by default and I haven’t changed it. I’m confident I can squeeze out a few extra frames per second by lowering the settings a bit (or more) if needed.
I haven’t encountered many bugs so far, but I’ve only played solo (I don’t have anyone to play with at the moment) and I haven’t actively looked for bugs either. There are a few spots on the map that you can’t cross, but I’m pretty sure you're not supposed to anyway—I just had to take a different route. And I haven’t gotten stuck anywhere. The only bug I've ran into is a warning message window that appears at the end of a run, saying that due to a network error my inventory was restored to its state before the mission started. That message appears at the end of all missions, even if you died. No big deal, just had to click "confirm" and it disappears. And if I really managed to extract, my loot was still there. Also, for whatever reason, my character's haircut changes each time I return from battlefield. These bugs aren't very annoying, let alone disruptive.
I didn't manage to find out how you can actually customize your weapons, although I had weapons parts, optics, handles, etc ... And I got a lockbox that I didn't manage to open, yet.
For me, it’s worth the price ($27 right now), and it'll be worth even more once it gets polished and they add more content

The gameplay loop is addictive enough to keep you hooked for hours : you're given missions, accomplishing them earns you money and exprience points and with that you can improve your character's abilities, armor and weapons. Then you can accomplish more missions, more dangerous, more profitable. And then you do it all over again. Classic. The gameplay itself is very (maybe "too" would be more appropriate) simple : shoot, slash, dash and use abilities (grenade). I didn't unlock every weapon or power up yet, but I have a strong feeling that that's about to be it. No "secrets", no mechanisms to activate, no keys to open doors or deploy bridges, no NPCs or vending machines in the dungeons. There is very little interaction with the environment yet.... I may very well be wrong on that, and also this is only Early Access so it may very well change in the future.
All in all Dreadhunter is a fun shoot'em up with a few rpg elements that I hope will evolve in the right direction.
Godspeed devs !

GAME SERVERS ARE DOWN

GAME IS DEAD

SHAME

C'est d'un chiant ...
Qu'est-ce qu'on en a à faire de la vie de cette épave d'inspecteur, de cette enquête que je n'ai même pas entamée en 4h parce que j'explore la ville, dans cet univers tellement proche du nôtre qu'on croirait à un pauvre skin ? Sérieusement, pourquoi j'ai le choix de demander à la petite fille devant la librairie qu'est-ce qu'une romance, qu'est-ce qu'un roman policier ? Mon personnage est vraiment un demeuré ? Je veux bien qu'il ait eu un black-out sur les 2 jours précédents, mais il y a des limites ! Le problème que ça me pose c'est que ma FOMO m'oblige de poser *toutes* les questions disponibles, au cas où ça déboucherait sur une info intéressante, mais dans 99,9% des cas c'est une pure perte de temps.
Je ne joue pas pour ce genre d'expérience, je joue pour le dépaysement, pour l'aventure, pour la beauté, pour le challenge. A part la beauté, grâce à une direction artistique vraiment bien sentie, rien dans Disco Elysium ne me donne envie de revenir.
L'expérience proposée tient plus du roman graphique dont vous êtes le héros que du jeu vidéo.
A faire quand on a 70 ans, peut être

Of course, visuals are stunning. Speed sensations are actual too in Pacer (ex-Formula Fusion).
But there's no more support, no mods, no nothing to it anymore. Nobody plays online, no relevant activity on the Discord.
I had fun for a couple of hours, then, at higher levels in campaign, gold medals are unobtainable. Because you have to kill 8 competitors in 5 minutes, which is more than 1.5 per minute, pretty high expectation. On tracks where you get ammunition too rarely, that's frustrating. No solution found on the mighty internet, apart from the classic "use this or that loadout" or the resigned "that's impossible, I've moved on". Besides, this particular mechanism differs pretty much from the original it tries to revive : you get to choose the weapons prior to racing the track. When you race, you can only find ammunition or speed boosts. Some will likely embrace that idea, but I prefer the original, I find that one more challenging (because you can't rely on fire power to win races) and, obviously, the mixed weapons add up to gameplay's interest. On top of that, the power-up pick-up box is too tiny in Pacer, you'll get frustrated often by missing them by only a few inches.
At that price point (40 €), you should consider BallisticNG because it's a way better and much cheaper option.