Recent reviews by Zelascelar

Keeping it without spoilers as much as I can.
*Quickie:* A horror co-op game with unique "artsy" graphics that might not be everyone's cup of tea but they manages to make it immersive with some really good sound design along with interesting mechanics/gameplay. It's fun and engaging despite being rogue-like, making it short short but intense, easy to jump into. Some monsters doesn't just kill you!
It's cheap and even if it's very early access it's a solid, polished game for what it's offering. It's a big yes for me!

Advice: Do NOT look up guides/how to's/info about monsters! Experience and explore the game yourself and w. friends. The most fun part is not knowing anything since the game can be really panic-inducing. (I love/hate to be scared)


I've played tons of horror/thriller games before this: RE, SH, L4D, Eternal Darkness, Fatal Frame etc, but more recently Phasmophobia and games like Pacify and Demonologist.
I love Phasmophobia even if it can quickly get stale, since the ghost pattern/mechanics is pretty easy to figure out. I've also experienced early access games like Pacify and Demonologist which to me was pretty lousy and felt like they tried to mimic Phasmo and failed to make it unique or engaging. Demonologist relies on the same scares every single round. Good graphics means nothing to me if the game play is bland/too easy to figure out/boring.

So that's one thing I like with this game: the variety of dangers you can encounter, not only with monsters but also the environment. It's like Phasmo meets SCP or Backrooms scenario. The task is simple - get in and collect junk to sell, you got 3 days to meet the quota - but the engaging part comes from the maze-like complex filled with all kinds of monsters, some with interesting mechanics - it's not just "touch you and die" is all I can say - along with elements of weather and outdoors problems, making you have to figure out the items that might help you out but also makes you slower the more you carry.
I feel that since graphics is simple they can put the focus on more engaging mechanics, which I like a lot.

The sound design is also very steady and immersive, especially the in-game voice , such as different echo effects while you're inside and outside. If your face gets covered for any reason it'll make your voice muffled and hard to hear at distances. You can also perish very quickly and the only warning your teammates miht get is your scream before it's cut off. It all just encourages teamwork.

Plus talking actually seems to be a risky thing, some monsters reacts to it while some don't which keeps you on the edge. Again, the less you know the more fun the game will be in the beginning which is the most important thing I think. With time you'll learn how to deal with everything but the moments of exploration and horrors will become great memories for you.

It's rouge-like which can be a big bummer for people, but one good thing is that you don't need to replay the "beginner levels" once you get a game over, you can go risky and directly go for more dangerous places for quick high reward.

I've played games like Dark and Darker where I didn't like the rogue-like element - I guess with RPG games I prefer real progress, loosing all my gear constantly just wasn't worth the dungeon crawling (it might just be me not enjoying Battle Royale games too) - but in this one it doesn't feel like a total loss, since you play more for the experience; the fun random moments which can be -very- cinematic, at least if you're really engaged! (Turn off the lights!) and the shock of meeting something you don't know how to deal with yet.

I'm only about 6 hours in when writing this, one game with 4 player and one with 2, and I had a blast both times. From here I hope that they just keep adding more things, maybe make each moon/planet have its own unique random maze interior, new monsters/mechanics etc. (players getting kidnapped? Entities mimicing player models?) Just adding progress systems will not engage me for a long time, in fact it makes games feel more like a job for me. Especially horror games is more about the experience for me. Customizing options might work great here!

The one thing I wish that the game kept after a game over is the cosmetics you unlock in-game. I'm sure the devs will find out a system that rewards you while making the game still feel fresh and engaging, it's promising so far.

I have to do this review after the latest ICO update - Infantry Combat Overhaul - and after nearly 700 hours of gameplay. (Edit at end, changed to thumbs up, explanation)

My experience with FPS goes back to Day of Defeat 1.6 and then to CoD, Battlefield (didn't bought 1, 5 and 2042, the latter wasn't even supposed to be BF to begin with), TF2, Rising Storm 2 Vietnam, Planetside 2, even touched with Arma briefly, not to mention Goldeneye, Timesplitters, Quake, Doom, SW Battlefront. I've also enjoyed strategy games like AoE, SC, Heroes 3, CoH 1 and 2, Sins of a solar Empire and HoI 4, so I do love the slow pace and the feeling of strategical progression and not just "run around and shoot because it's fun" which is the main reason why I stopped playing Battlefield which used to be more strategical.

This doesn't mean I'm an expert, just that I enjoy both arcade shooters and the more mil-sim aspect of it. To me Squad was perfectly in the middle, until now. I embrace realism where it fits and done in a good way but this is not done in a good way. If it tries to be "more realistic" it's probably an insult to real soldiers.

The reason for the update it to counter free-roaming lone-wolf playstyle and try to embrace players sticking with your squad. In order to do this they've tried to limit the possibility to roam free and punish it harder than before.

You can read about the changes they did, some might be good such as taking away the ability to jump and grab ledges on your own, now instead requiring a teammate to boost you up, and the new suppression effect is nice and makes that more viable for the machine gunners to do.

But the movement nerf is too much and the new aiming system is stunningly worse. In their attempt to try get rid of Rambo players going behind a squad and moving them down they made long range combat unsatisfying, even close combat gets sloppy because it takes such a long time to stabilize your aiming.
You walk so slow now that it's not even fun, and that's coming from someone who got patience and get a kick from the slow progression of pushing a frontline and in the end winning a game rather than just wanting to get some quick kills.

Add to the fact that there's sometimes over 1 minute respawn time and yeah, it gets tedious quickly.

For me lone wolves were not a problem when it came to being able to aim good and such, because you could counter them with good teamwork already. Lone wolves in fact made sure that you had good communication with your squadmates and stuck together. If you were sloppy that's when lone wolves could annihilate a squad. If I got instantly killed it's because I wasn't careful enough about my own position or didn't expect/prepared myself for enemies possibly rushing in.

So it's not a game for me any longer, they now try to aim for more realism, if that's your thing or not that's up to you. I think games like this can mimic realism up to a point but that there's a limit where the game just gets unsatisfying.

I also think that there's always situations in war where you end up a lone wolf, whether you want it or not, such as getting stuck behind enemy lines after an ambush. You used to have some chance to survive, now you have pretty much 0.

It's an update that changed the game and that's why I leave this review with a thumbs down. As other reviews says, there's a ton of things they could have fixed first and I think that they could have done other things to reach more realism, but at this point it's just unsatisfying even for me. A former dynamic gameplay that now forces you to one kind of it.

I hope this is not a review bomb but I've never experienced an update that changes a game this much with so little and Squad was to me a perfect fit already pace-wise. I wouldn't have made a bad review for a game because "I don't like this" since it would be my own preference and just means that I don't like that kind of game, but this case is that the game used to be something I enjoyed and now I just can't.
So I'm no lone wolf that's whining, I used to be medic/support/AT role, even went Squadlead myself a few times, even got invited to a clan at some point, which I don't think roamers get.

And I do not demand "undo everything and I'll come back!" like I said some changes were fine. I'd probably even get adapted to the movement nerf if they decrease the respawn timer a bit. Depending on where they go from this I might come back. I'm not asking for instant respawn, that would make the game too arcade.

The fact that they slapped an in-game store into the game after promising never to do it also added to this. Extra money doesn't go to the devs, it goes to the company that owns them, who then would still force the devs to work overtime as if those extra money never affected them.

Edit: I read about the history behind Squad, didn't know the Project Reality was behind it, a game I have never played but I've heard of it. It seems like Squad have changed back and forth with its realism, not knowing who to appease. I was used with the Squad that was adapted to a less realism-focused audience and the devs thinks that's what caused the roaming, non-teamworking players to appear - which I've experienced myself, a lot of people who "just want to shoot and have fun" in a game that's a bit more complex than that. The community is not the hardcore "follow the rules or die" kind of people mostly, but without effort for teamwork the whole game mechanic falls apart and you'll get destroyed, sometimes not even able to spawn in because those kind of players doesn't want to help build bases etc.
Again I think realism doesn't always mean better and can be done in a good or bad way, if it's even needed.

It seems that they will tone down the changes, so I'll change to a thumbs up even if I'd rather go a Neutral one until I know how the new changes will be like. In my experience it was like Squad went to a sudden big realism turn, but now I know that it's been more than one turn during its life before I started playing, so the thumbs down felt unfair even if that's the experience I paid for and loved. Again, I was not a roamer, I loved building and supporting just as much as I loved being in combat.

Adding Normal and Realism servers would perhaps solve the problem with the split community, but I'm not sure.

I also want to mention that not everyone who went with a thumbs down due to the update was a "run and gun" kind of player that was whining about it. Discussion is needed; I would've never heard about Squads history if it wasn't for that, which widened my view about the subject.

I'll give a proper review after the secondary changes.

First of all, for an indie alpha game made in unity it's actually really well done. I've been through a lot of crap and this is not one of them, despite a few bugs and room for improvement it's more than just playable. The fact that it's made by just one person blows my mind a little bit.

I love this, The voice recognition is probably the most interesting part - you can actually get responses from some ghosts through the spirit box. If you ask for a sign, it'll sometimes throw something on the ground or make the lights go out. Is it scary? Yes because the immersion is so well done (and you never know when it's time to run away). But horror is different for everyone, I have always found paranormal things scary (The Grudge messed me up big time back then) but despite that I'd say it's still a nice game, if you give it a chance.

There's in-game voice system, both local and through radio. When you're in the asylum for example there's an echo to the voices. So closing down Discord/TS is highly recommended.

For the price tag there's actually lots of replayability, but not infinite of course. There's already lots of different ghosts that behaves in different ways, you need to use all your tools in order to figure out which type it is to complete the mission, along other smaller objectives like taking a photo of the ghost. I think there's lots of potential in this. Highly recommending it!

First of all, it says that I have 429 hours on it, but I'm playing through their own launcher since I had problems with Steam in the past (it's probably fixed by now) so it's 1708 hours as I'm writing this.

My own thoughts: I can only recommend this game, it's simply unique. Some battles can have 200 players going on for it, and that's not the only battle on the map. It's all up to the players how well they cooperate that decides which faction is the winner. You got infantry, armored power-suited infantry called MAX, ground and air vehicles, bases with turrets and power shields, you can even make your own bases nearly anywhere (not too close to capture points for example) with turrets, walls, shields and artillery cannons you can unlock yourself with certs! And in a day or two they'll add Bastions, giant fleet carriers which reminds me of Titans from Battlefield 2142, which only outfits can spawn through teamwork - outfits being the "guilds" of Planetside 2. The best time to play PS2 is now!

There's moments where your squad or platoon (several squads in one, each squad can hold 12 players) spawns Galaxies, giant transport airships which holds 12 players each, you fly in over enemy base and drop down, take them out and hold the point.. unless they make counterattack, spawning dozens of tanks. This game can truly be epic, if you put some effort to it! Have patience, there's a lot to learn and the tutorial doesn't cover everything, but ask experienced players or join Mentor Squads, or watch youtubers like Commander Cyrious or Moukass.

You'll truly feel like one of many - it's a big war and sometimes you'll have the upper hand, sometimes not. If you keep playing you'll know how to deal with different situations - switching to Heavy Assault to attack their vehicles, or lay down anti-tank mines on the road as engineer where you know they'll come. Not every battle can be won, but when you do it's a nice feeling!

Big mention if you worry about Pay to Win elements: It's not really P2W. There's 2 unlock resources; Certs which is in-game and you gain it through XP gain - Kills, resurrects, capturing/defending points and much more. You use those to unlock weapons, abilities, upgrades, equipment. Then there's Daybreak Coins, which you buy for real money, and you can unlock the same things as Certs + all the cosmetics available. It sounds bad, but it's not, for you will not have that much advantage no matter how much stuff you buy - remember that you'll play with hundreds of players. Simple teamwork can easily bring down lv 100+ players (I'm 107). You'll unlock stuff like anti-air launcher to use, which locks onto them, but while that's equipped you'll not be able to take on ground vehicles.

Youtubers can explain further why the P2W is not so prominent in this game compared to other games. Also, there's no lootboxes other than Implant Packs, which gives you random implants that you can put onto your infantry class - such things as no shake during explosions, regeneration if no damage taken for 12 sec, and so on. It's nothing OP and you can easily either gain the same implants through winning events with your faction, or make them yourself with in-game resources - and it's not too grindy either. You will not get weapons or cosmetics through them, so no lootboxes. The moment Daybreak adds lootboxes, I'll stop playing the game instantly.
The fact that this game is free to begin with is mind blowing.

It's difficult to mention everything without making the review too long, but to sum it up, big scale war FPS, with room for strategic and tactical thinking - tactical as making decisions in the heat of battle, and strategic being gathering up players and friends, looking at the map and deciding where you're needed the most. Or you can just join battles and have a go!
I hope you'll enjoy this game, seeya on the Battlefield! My main is Vanu! :)