Recent reviews by Samson1

This game was so good years ago. It went P2W and has only become worse since. And that was six years ago now!

So inexplicably awful, temperamental and unintuitive it gives indie games a bad name.

That being said... once you work out what stuff does and get over the brain cell liquefying balancing, it's really, really good fun! Unless you want to keep your friends, then it's a little more complicated.

Really, really good game, but... & reason for my disapproval

CURRENT ISSUES I FOUND:
1. serious privacy concerns (voice recordings saved) & dodgy anti-cheat
2. Better models in games released in the late 1990s (they don't match the rest of the game)
3. Missing textures on a significant amount of models
4. The skybox is a completely different art style from the rest of the game
5. No passive player direction
6. Guns sound like plastic and handle like plastic (lack of visual weight when moving, but the offenders are the sound effects. Is the bullet hit sound a dart going into a dartboard?)
7. Some physical items are a single model (iron girders for example)
8. L.U.Ds are broken - fixed?
9. The switching between terrains is both subjectively and objectively hideous
10. Tree leaves look like a Minecraft rip-off trying to run an Optifine dependent resourcepack without Optifine
11. The colour grading lacks variety to the point everything just merges into everything else. That, or glaring colours that don't match the grading
12. Point markers are unintelligible in too many circumstances and in some cases are invisible
13. Voice Chat has no alternative (think Planetside: 2's 'V' menu)
14. Vehicles and aircraft aren't integrated nor balanced yet I think. Helicopter miniguns only have other helicopters to fear while being able to slay everything on the ground with little to no effort. Meanwhile, vehicles have some weird disconnect and seem to exist in their own universe and serve no more than to move around more quickly. An M9 shredding an armoured car? I'm sorry, what...
15. Most of the maps aren't suitable for vehicles and the hot zones of the map are either accessible only by foot or are death traps for any vehicle that dares support, drivers and gunners dying instantly. This then, means they are useless and serve little purpose than being either troop transport or a deep annoyance with no in-between
16. Random civilian cars are static models in completely unexplainable locations in some maps
17. The game's lighting system is purely functional in the same way Vanilla Minecraft's is
18. Humongous overlays that distract from gameplay and provide useless and unwanted information whenever I level up and got me killed twice (a U.I. scale setting would be amazing)
19. Unexplainable stones with completely unnatural placement and temporary textures. Instead of stones, why not abandoned fortifications or remains of 'player made' fortifications that are functional as cover? It's lazy and uncreative
20. The eco-systems in some maps don't make sense to their given setting
21. The character models are disproportionate and are the stuff of nightmares, or Unturned models if they went to the gym (not a negative, but quirky in an odd way and would be improved with new animations)
22. There are way too many places to flank and too much cover in most maps turning them into an unnavigable maze
23. The G.U.I. overall looks like it's at 1200x900 on a 1080p monitor
24. There aren't enough configs in settings despite there being so many
25. Partial environmental destruction is nice, but is poorly utilised and feels like a gimmick just as the vehicles and aircraft do
26. The scoreboard... I love it! But why does it need all 27-inches of my screen?
27. Physics... The only difference between this and the way Bethesda configured HAVOC in Creation Engine 1.0 is that Bethesda made it funny and you don't have to try for the camera to clip through something
28. Not enough spawn points causing the majority of the matches to be waiting for a medic who never comes and walking to a capture point. Why am I punished for dying by not being able to play the game? (I understand there is a team penalty for respawning, but it doesn't work from what I've observed. Pet peeve: due to concentrating on my environment and not a small and thin white progress bar in the centre of my screen, which usually has the ground behind it, I always miss when I'm being resurrected)
29. Map design discourages revival of teammates due to there being no safe place, even momentarily, so nobody can stop without fear of dying because they took their eyes off the road, and because there's never a safe moment, there is never a safe place to drag someone to. Even if you're in the centre of where quite literally all of your teammates are. To add to this, these issues, a major problem in fact, means that once a few squads have taken over a location, it's impossible for the enemy team and their finery to take it or take it back
30. There is nothing special about this game. But the experience the community in it provides is something very special indeed. But objectively, the only area it competes in against its competition is its optimisation and performance. In that respect, it is leagues ahead and there is no rebutting that
31. No controller support (people who physically can't use a M+K can't play)
32. Some hit markers are ally colour blue by default which is jarring (all colours are customisable)
33. Everyone spawning inside each other at the start of a match... Everyone is usually flirting outrageously with each other, making cex noises, being ridiculous or playing music. Imagine... This in reality is a non-issue as it's only for thirty seconds at the start of each match?


THE GOOD
1. Snipers are well balanced
2. Levelling up is great and feels fulfilling
3. Mouse settings are really nice
4. Bullet drop off is goofy and for snipers feels like air-soft, it's bril!
5. Basic and very effective building mechanics
6. Watching the constant stream of people getting banned for racism and harassment is pure joy and very welcome
7. Squad's maximum player count
8. The authenticity of Hummer & tank > building interaction
9. The way players and the game don't come off as serious nor comedic
10. Advanced weapon customisation that even edges out Sector's Edge
11. T.L.C from the developers
12. Words can't describe how ace tanks are
13. Sledge hammers... yes
14. Constant updates
15. Developer interaction and relationship with their community
16. The game is a passion project unspurred by money
17. Tanks x3. Better than they have any right to be


The back end of this game is brilliant and the performance is terrific. But all of the above makes it hard for me to justify recommending this game at its current asking price of £13 right now when there are alternatives for relatively the same price or free that offer a much more refined game than this. But BattleBit: Remastered is in no way a completed game and nobody knows what it will look like when it's done. Star Citizen has easily £50 of quality but currently has a completely unreflective feature set, while BattleBit could be said to have £10 worth of features but they're in early, early alpha packaging. Yet another game to release unfinished but unusually more baked than a number of unbaked games from massive studios in recent years! I'm excited for its future. It is for this reason though that my review is unrecommended. I don't care about the usual alpha issues like tree models clipping and what not, and when I'm locked in, the plastic weapons are ignoble. But there simply isn't £13 worth of game in its current state. There will easily be £20 worth of game once its out in my opinion, and I imagine this is what the devs had in mind, but it's still a lot for how rough it is currently. I'll be changing the review to positive once quality control is higher in an instant. But saying that, it's fun. If you have a good match and friends this game is immensely fun. But for me personally, enjoyment doesn't give BattleBit a pass in my books.

I played this game avidly a few years ago and loved every moment of it! That is, until I hit the pay-to-play idiocy. I'm deeply saddened to find out that the game now virtually unplayable. I had hopes that you as a studio would iron these issues out and I would be able play without dumb waiting times and grinding costs but as it is now? I'm very, very disappointed in you.

The speed jumping mechanic is sub-par, the weapons are nothing special, generic, scopes are weird (not in a good way) and some of the collision boxes seem off but I can't quite put my finger on it. Also in the first two minutes of my first match someone proceeded to kill me after strafing behind a wooden building a few yards away while I watch as his gun's projectiles came at me having clipped through the house diagonally which I, caught off guard died to. Not great!

Bar far the worst FPS game of its type I have ever played and I was expecting something else entirely from the way people talk about Krunker, and I wish it was that because that game sound great.
But Forgetting the woefully unreliable jump mechanic for increasing speed movement's pretty fun and the maps visually are well made. Just a pity the rest mostly falls flat on its face.

Even though there's seemingly not all that much to do, there's actually just about as much content as Vanilla Minecraft offers honestly and I could happy grind for hours perfectly content. It's even better with friends!

UPDATE:
December 2023
Many changes have been made since writing over a year ago. The game is well rounded. it's simply great.

It's sad to see official servers terminated, but I'm certain the community will keep the game going with their own servers and who knows, their own very special maps.


--------------------------------------------------
June, 2022
I'm changing my review to a negative one which I'd forgotten to do at the start of the Attachments Update beta too be honest.

The game started out great but it has taken a sharp turn within the past two years after moving to and now over a grey line. It used to be unique and something to relax in, speed chess was the way! But now with it's mass of weapons and the TTK now at E.A levels of speed there is no room for structures which take so long now they're a faff anyway and as far as I can tell players only do use them on rare occasion or in the theme of tower defence pre-placing and is now a dying art.
Weapons used too have their own strengths but now every weapon is mostly the same and handle the same other than using a different method of shooting bullets. This has caused the skill floor and skill ceiling to sandwich together, only separating the good and the bad by aim, reaction time and nothing more.
The community maps are wonderful but thanks to the TTK they can't be enjoyed as even the least skilled of players can get the drop on anyone and will have a guaranteed kill in that case. Auditory skills do nothing unless you are facing where your enemy will come from for the same reason.
Nothing stays the same, if you want a game to learn and get good at don't bother. You'll be relearning all of the weapons and sometimes twice per and inbetween major updates and since the game is now just a regular FPS as all of the other skills required have been either mostly patched out or 'encouraged' out via additions such as outlining all 'camping' enemies. There is no difference between this and the next FPS as Sector's Edge has already drifted into the territories of other FPS games and right now that's E.A and Activision. In fact the next FPS most likely has a tidier gun tier unlike the utter mess and merging of SE weapons that rapidly continues to get worse.

For feedback, as The Mjrlun has said in his recent review, you could get more out of an apple by staring at it.
This isn't a problem with the developers by any means, it's the problem with feedback itself. I come from a time which has long gone, from a game which does not exist anymore. My feedback is against the developers' vision and as far as I can tell the latest wave of new players (who seem to want R6S) so of course feedback like mine is shunned; I've never disputed that and it is also the reason why I refuse to leave feedback in the first place. Wouldn't anyone shun something if it's the reverse of their wants? In my case it's mostly the total opposite but it is what it is.
Gamemodes... Just, gamemodes. They keep being removed for no reason at all and for a time we didn't have anything of worth to play on. Bring them back, all of them! :D
We had some great gamemodes: Team Deathmatch, FFA and there's an 'infection' gamemode which was before my time. These gamemodes aren't gone forever by any means but right now they've been gone for months into years.

Lastly, the lack of players. Since the game has historically reinvented itself multiple times a year it means having to relearn parts, and in my case it was having my play-style and loadout alienated in the game twice, including fairly consistent nerfs into oblivion and then buffs again without achieving much if anything in the long run. Couple this with the game's constant reinvention and sometimes seemingly aimless expansion it is no wonder nobody stays. S.E at one time was a game where elites and newbies had a relatively level ground to play on. Now the elites are favoured just like everywhere else you look in modern shooter formats and apparently this is worthy of praise? Only people who haven't played proper, unbiased shooters would say that in my opinion.

My feedback and conclusion to this has never changed.
The only way to reverse this is by making the TTK much higher, which will slow gameplay right down increasing the need for positional strat.
Make digging and building what it used to be: this will speed up the feel of gameplay giving the player plenty of time to react and respond to environmental changes, and since you can now pay attention to these the game will feel faster without technically changing anything else. You will also get the passive structure placing and tunnelling strats back which were what made the game so unique in the first place, and was its whole own skillset but as it is now there is no point in the MIDI existing and structures have little impact on play.
Scrap attachments. They serve no purpose other than making the game more complex and cluttered than it already is (they are seriously fun though! But the game should be what makes playing fun, not attachments). Attachments also don't fix any problems the weapons already have and just move those problems to different things. They also make the game inherently unbalanced by nature. You got a DB with richo and your enemy has a Double Barrel with a slug? Tough luck. You have an SMG and your enemy has an assault with piercing? Tough luck.
There is now no level ground for skill sets, styles and loadouts. This makes structures even more obsolete and instead of a fun obstacle, they are an annoying hindrance and make playing well and truly unenjoyable. Ferther enforced by the inability to dig up said structures while a fight is going on.

These are problems, real problems that cannot be ignored if the game is too be for everyone and not just elite with an acquired taste. It's painful as every part of the game oozes the love, passion and dedication that has been put into it, but somewhere along the line the dream either changed or ended and the project is now an ever-changing confused vision that lost its core identity and is trying to find it again, or has left it behind for good.

Conclusion:
Regardless of all of this, the game is still well worth a go and the tight-knit community makes it all worth it! But if you're a casual player and want a game to scratch an itch and sink your teeth into? This most likely isn't it. But maybe it can be, and it could be in the future. But for me and people like me who want a level playing field that you win based on intelligence and experience? I would be highly surprised if it ever is again. But then again, the community is why I am still here. Despite the stupid TTK the Attachments Update is very promising and the nostalgia keeps bringing me back to this very much love and not so much hate relationship.

Space Engineers is what you get when you combine Star Base and Star Citizen then throw Minecraft in its face. Updates are frequent and relevant. It still needs optimising so don't expect to build anything larger than a Millennium Falcon at 1/1 scale without slowing the server down due to how the game *currently* registers nodes.
As long as you don't have too many "large" ships pasted in or heavy mods or scripts running in programmable blocks the simulation speed will remain at its maximum at 1.0. I have somewhere around 300 mods now and the only impact on performance is my habit of building big. (One hundred, two hundred blocks long maybe fifty blocks wide.) And even then, that's due to stacking too many reactors or thrusters. The game isn't stable enough for 20 odd people on a modded multiplayer server yet. Graphics can leave a little to be desired but are quite sound and there is just enough customisability for the menus not to give the menus a cheapness. With practical and useful updates and without suffering from Star Citizen's "little nicks."
Best fifteen pounds I've spent.

HOWEVER:

Keen has started selling trivial content as DLCs and skins. They aren't necessary for game function and serve no other purpose but to look good and add a bit of variety visually. There are mods that do the same and in some cases better than the current two add-ons do. If they were over five pounds I would likely see them as greed. But since they are inexpensive options that have no correlation to the game's functioning it's a pass in my books.

Great all rounder FPS for solo or team play. The game is very reliable for windows10 and GNU/Linux based operating systems being one of the most reliable games I play. Don't let the price fool you, there is more then what you pay for.

The graphics are a bit outdated and some of the triggered avents are buggy with some crashes, but once through that it's a splendid game.