Recent reviews by Thevanin

Everything a city builder should be. You know you should get this game if you don't already have it. Goes on sale a lot too which is a bonus.

What's there to say that hasn't already been said.

The characters are intersting and unique, and the story is intriguing. This is one of the crown jewels in the Telltale library.

Expect 8-10 hours for a play through. I've played through this twice now (about a year between them, and on different platforms). Knowing what's coming doesn't detract from any of the choices or mystery.

The game is vastly improved from how it was at launch. I played the first 2 chapters shortly after release and the rest in the past week or so. I've only touched the single player campaign (took about 14 hours on normal), but I plan on going back to explore more, find the relics, and do the special missions.

Level Design:

The game is gorgeous and I feel like it really captures what a Space Hulk emerging from the warp should look like. The levels contain everything from tight corridors to massive stone cathedrals. The attention to detail really shines. There's stuff to see everywhere, and it all feels really well done. The environmental sounds are really good and go hand in hand with the level design to create some truly suspenseful moments. It’s quite unsettling to be walking through a cramped corridor and hear enemies moving above/below you without knowing exactly where they are.

There’s nothing that really separates the levels from one another. They all have the same style/atmosphere and play the same way. Oddly enough, this didn’t really bother me. I think it’s because the levels are pretty large and there’s so much detail that going through a place multiple times doesn’t really feel repetitive.

Gameplay:

The gameplay works for what the game is. It’s not doing anything groundbreaking and that’s OK. Most of the ranged weapons look/feel/sound good to shoot, but melee attacks look and sound underwhelming even if they are powerful. The controls are easy to pick up and character customization is pretty straight forward. You have enough info about the different weapons to be able to make informed decisions when customizing the loadout for you and your allies. Completing missions unlocks new weapons and cosmetic armor pieces (stormshield counts as a weapon). Character skills progression is based on points that are awarded at the end of each level. The better you do the more points you get, but I pretty much always found myself getting 3-4. Make sure you use them all; if you don’t place all your skill points before moving onto the next level you lose them. You can improve your allies, your physical/defensive abilities, or your psychic abilities.

Artifacts are easy enough to stumble upon, and it’s common to find 2-4 per level. I think this is a good balance between feeling rewarding and incentivizing replay ability. I plan on going back to collect all the relics as well as to view all the screens with the journal entries (don’t remember if they have an official name, but you activate the screens to read some lore). The voice acting for Belial and the 3 terminators is pretty well done as well. However, they missed out on the opportunities to please some of the people that were really interested in the lore. It would have made everything much more rewarding if the journal screens had audio files that were played along side the text. Also, many of the relics are just non-descript ‘relics’. Having some named chapter artifacts would have been a nice touch and made finding relics more interesting.

The enemy and ally AI can be pretty dumb at times. Most enemies just charge right at you and it’s only when they become adequately powerful does this really constitute a threat. Conversely, your allies won’t always attack when you’re engaging an enemy. For a few levels I had both allies equipped with a thunder hammer + stormshield, and enemies would run right past them and engage me before either ally would attack. Similarly, I’d be shooting at tyranids that were rushing us and my allies would stand there and watch. You are able to control them using hot keys (F for follow, ect), but that detracted from the flow of the game. It wasn’t as fun to tell them to guard a hallway just to make sure that they weren’t standing in a doorway as I was trying to close and lock it.

Story:
The story is slow to get going. The first 2-3 chapters have you just running back and forth around the ships. After that the story starts to pick up, and I genuinely enjoyed it. I found myself saying “just one more mission” quite a few times in the second half of the game; that’s a good sign. Unfortunately, I feel like the ending could use some more work. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I think the story would have benefitted from one or two more missions at the end of the final chapter. Also, having some cut scenes would have helped with the story telling as well. Overall though, I enjoyed the narrative that this game provided.

Performance:
I didn’t have any crashes and rarely any performance drops, but my PC is decently powerful (Ryzen 1700, 1080 Ti, 16GB RAM). I played at 3440x1440 with everything on high or better and maintained a solid 60 fps most of the time. Occasionally it would drop into the 40’s during big fights and I think I only saw it go into the 30’s once. Obviously I’d want it to stay at 60 all the time, but the drops really didn’t bother me. It’s much improved from how the game was at launch. I did have one irritating glitch that regularly occurred. When I would start a new level there would be no audio during Belial’s intro, but that was about it.

Overall:
Overall I really enjoyed this game. The gorgeous graphics, environments, and the level of detail really create a compelling setting that enables them to tell a decent story while helping to prop up some of the AI and gameplay issues. For $40 (MSRP at time of writing) I’d say this game is worth it, but you’re probably better off waiting for a sale depending on how many of the special missions or multiplayer you plan on playing (I looked at the multiplayer lobby and there weren’t many games… but it was a Monday evening).

It's a fast paced and potentially nerve-wracking archery game. You never know what's about to come at you from behind.

This is probably a 'must own' title for the Vive. If you've played other rhytm/music based games (Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution) then you'll be able to pick up and play this one.

Pros:
- Song selection can be from a variety of sources including your PC and YouTube.
- Runs well. My computer is on the lower end of what's acceptable for VR (i5-2500k @ 4.4GHz and GTX 970) and I don't really have any performance issues.
- It can be a good workout. Playing a fast song on the hardest difficulty and going out of your way to 'punch' the orbs instead of just blocking them can work up a sweat.
- I was incredibly impressed when I tried to load a song that hadn't been previously played. It played through the song once and then the level was ready to go. Their algorithm for generating 'levels' is quite good.

Cons:
- Arenas are uninspired. They're nothing special to look at and you don't usually notice them anyway.
- YouTube video playing in background is 100% unnecessary. You never pay attention to the video, so in my case I'd rather have it not there taking up resources.
- General VR con... your neck can get sore if you play for an extended period of time. There's a lot of looking up.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started playing this but it's becoming one of my favorite games.

It's a good intro to what VR experiences can be like. The entire scenario is probably less than 10 minutes, but it does a great job of fulfilling that childhood fantasy of being a jedi in a Star Wars movie. It's worth the download; I plan on keeping it installed to show friends how cool VR can be when they come over.

It's a game that I keep coming back to. It looks great and I like the way that the matches play. It is grindy, but there's enough Mechs and enough build variants that it takes a long time to get tedious.

If you're new to this game download it and play through the tutorial, watch a couple how to play YouTube vids, use the provided champion mechs and the first 25 matches (that reward bonus currency) to find out what size and playstyle you like, and then make your decision.