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Recent reviews by PixelGhost

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1 person found this review helpful
1,609.8 hrs on record (36.9 hrs at review time)
To be entirely clear: The review is for Core Multiplayer, the part of the game that actually costs money.

tl;dr version:
The game appears to be in an semi-functional state and isn't worth the $70 - $100 USD.
Buy this one on sale if possible.

Drip-feed style of content drops with heavy emphasis of drip. Minimal amount of content is being pushed out and heavier focus on Store Bundles and Warzone/DMZ.
Lack of 2XP timer and a way to tell if it's real time or in-match time. Added as of Season 1.
No barracks for personal player statistics, medals, and leaderboards. Partially done. Stats are viewable for yourself, but no leaderboards & medals.
No way to tell what emblems and banners there are in game at the moment and how to unlock them. Not really fixed as of Season 1, but they've added a menu of unlockable banners with the objectives required to get them.
No hardcore mode at the time of launch. Tier 1 was added in place of Hardcore, but was replaced in Season 2 with Hardcore.
Removal of Specialist Kill Streak system.
No way to limit/configure cross-play with Consoles/PC.

The level of detail in the game is remarkable and it's great to see and hear it all.
A beautiful game to play in for sure, and you can see it all throughout the game.

Weapons system changes are neat. A nice change up that lets you unlock guns early and to further customize you guns.
Attachment and camo system where you can only get specific attachments and camos from weapons is also an interesting move. In the long-term, this system holds up better than the traditional system of starting from scratch with each weapon.
The only gripe I have with the current state of the attachments are that they're heavily penalizing using them.
Many of the attachments will significantly reduce ADS speed, recoil control, stability, or a combination of those stats.

Maps are fairly decent overall for most situations and have interesting layouts.
Santa Sena Border Crossing is one such map. It's a refreshing new map that's nice to play on in most modes... except for Search and Destroy where it's a game of chaining explosions. Besides that mess, the maps in general are nice with only one map (Zarqwa Hydroelectric) taking advantage of water-based combat.
There is one map that's got an awful reputation and that's Taraq, a flat open mess of a sniper haven that's got most folks backing out on sight.

Water-based combat is fairy refreshing and lets you make some interesting plays and flanks (assuming you're not being constantly tracked by the near constant UAVs)

Perk system doesn't hold up in actual game play. It feels like a an attempt to balance perk selection, but comes off pretty badly. In theory, having four perks to play with sounds great, but many of the "clutch" or playstyle-dependent perks don't become active until late into the match, past the "half-way point". A good example is Ghost, which is good for a flanking/stealthy play style. With the current meta of UAV spam, and a lack of available ways to mitigate this besides shooting down the (dozens of) UAV flight about, it can get frustrating having the enemy know where you are no matter what.
It makes sense why this was done, but at the same time it's quite frustrating knowing there's nothing you can do other then shoot down UAVs early game..

The killstreaks are weaker than previous titles, and you might think this is an awful thing to have, but it's actually really nice. This helps keep snowballing to a minimum and lets you focus more on gun play rather than dancing around dodging bullets and missiles all match long.

Aim Assist is still over-tuned to the point where you can visibly tell when someone is genuinely fighting the Aim Assist after a kill where they suddenly jerk their reticle off in some direction.
The Aim Assist also blatantly ignores the gratuitous visual recoil the game has contrary to how many of the guns in game should handle.
A reduction in effectiveness would go a long way in helping with this, but perhaps you want to avoid (most) controller players in general. Unfortunately there's no way to turn off cross-play at all.

Skill-Based Match Making also appears to be a bit over tunes as well with each match feeling like it's a form of pseduo-ranked where you're almost always having to play in a competitive fashion every match. As of Season 2, it's been tuned down a bit. Games feel a bit more offset than before, but not to any extremes (unless people leave mid-match).

Finally, the real issue plaguing this game: Warzone.
It's been clear since Modern Warfare 2019 that Warzone was the real product and that Core MP would be sidelined in favor of further developing Warzone. This intent is very clear with this release of Modern Warfare II as with the release of Warzone 2.0 and DMZ, Core MP is seeing minimal updates and content drops compared to previous titles. It wasn't until there was community backlash that Activision and the Dev Teams would shift things around and add an additional map for the season and try to add more for Core MP.

Overall, the game at launch feels like an incomplete product being pushed out at a higher price than previous titles and with less to show for it. The game as of Season 2 is in a noticeably better state, but $70 - $100 USD is a bit much to ask for considering how little content we may end up seeing for such a large asking price.
It's still fun with friends to an extent, but your mileage may vary.
Posted 1 November, 2022. Last edited 21 February, 2023.
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2 people found this review helpful
27.8 hrs on record (1.3 hrs at review time)
tl;dr - It's a work of art disguised as a game. An enjoyable experience that rewards your time spent.

Control unfortunately was announced to be on a certain Epic Store of underwhelming proportions...
Thinking that I'd rather swan dive off my roof than get more inferior game launchers, I opted for a more, classic approach.
I dusted off my old hat and set off to sail the seas once again, so that one day I can eventually pay up when the time is right... (Off to play for the 4th time from scratch...)

With the precursor out the way, let's get to the nice bits.

The game starts a little slower at first, mostly for setup purposes. It's not bad, just there so you can get some of the basics down before the game starts picking up it's pace. Far warning though, this is an unconventional Sci-Fi/Paranormal Third-Person Shooter game (with light puzzle mechanics.)
After the first hour or so (depending on your personal pacing...) that's where combat gets more dynamic, movement isn't just lateral, but rewards taking advantage of vertical spaces. Its a well crafted metroid-vania styled game with plenty of great moments in general. The game's way of training you is also handled very well as you can tell some things are a tutorial of sorts, but it's so prep for upcoming more advanced uses of the abilities you get.
The game is straight-forward enough where you don't need to go for every collectible to know the story, but if you really want to deep dive, there's plenty of fringe story elements that add onto the story and some bits that forshadowed the expansions. There's also a great deal of details put in and other little tidbits that make you appreciate the work by the developers. From the start, it honestly feels like a great SCP/X-Files-esque game with a great female lead, well written characters that don't feel overdone. Best way I can put it; It's as if they took a typical metropolitan office building, added in paranormal aspects and set the player loose within its confines. Every interaction has a reason and helps to setup further events. (Ex: You need to reach a certain locked area to progress but don't worry, the janitor has got you covered. Just to go the service entrance. ez progress)
The game environment, destructibles, audio and designs in the game are handled exceeding well.
One of the few things that was done best by this game in particular is Ray Tracing. It's easily one of the more noticable implementations of RTX in a game that doesn't kill your framerate (you'll want DLSS on though.)

After all that though, would I recommend this game? (Yeah, definitely.)
If you're down for a single-player experience with plenty of content for you, this is your game.
There's so much to discover and experience in this game it's borderline criminal that it took a year for it to get played by a larger share of the PC player base.

Oh and, don't forget that you have a gun and abilities.
Alternate accordingly so you can manage your fights better.
Exploring also rewards you in itself so go sightseeing. It's worth it.
Posted 27 August, 2020.
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1 person found this review helpful
4,955.5 hrs on record (849.9 hrs at review time)
Destiny 2 is far from perfect, but it's a still a solid experience.

[Gameplay, Grind, Mechanics & Bugs]
Gameplay is rather fulfilling; The way the guns and abilities "feel" is too good to pass up on.
The overall difficulty varies; Campaign content is a breeze, but many end-game activities have exceedingly high difficulty options available.
PvP is a similar situation but it's generally left a bit behind when it comes to updates. There's a PvEvP mode (Gambit) but it's almost entirely left behind in terms of updates.
Part of what allows you to do those high-level end game activities will be the gear you get along the way. Grinding for better gear is part of the standard gameplay loop. (Run Activities, get armor/guns, run harder activities, get better armor/guns, etc...)
The grind also varies depending on what you plan to go for. Most of the end-game options allow for lightly grinded sets. Activities like the Legend Ordeal & Grandmaster Nightfalls require dedicated setups and skill.
As with most games, there are a few bugs you (may) run into. They're not particularly game-breaking in most situations, and most of the glitches players find (and exploit) get patched; How fast they get patched depends on the severity of the glitch.
Something that can't be ignored however is the Bungie API. The API is a godsend as it allows for things like looking up post-game stats from a PvP game, to organizing and moving your gear between characters. Maybe the shotgun you really need is in the vault... You could just use an app on your phone or a browser app to move it without having to go in-game to a social space and manually move the weapon yourself.
It's a massive time saver that isn't vital to playing the game, but is a huge Quality of Life feature that all other games in this category lack.

[Graphics, Audio, Performance & Price]
Graphically, this game is truly beautiful. The skyboxes, and many of the environments are simply works of art. Particle effects and lighting are great as well.
As always, the audio quality is superb with Bungie. It's a "AAA" Voice Actor lineup that performed their lines phenomenally. (However, not all lines are actually good in the game.)
Music and ambient audio is very well done. "Spooky" areas have appropriate music and many areas have a perfect set of music to accompany what you're doing.
The game runs somewhat smoothly on average hardware, and scales well with better components. Ex: Vega 64 Crossfire (AFR Friendly) can pull exceedingly high performance with max settings at 1440p.
Base Game is free, not much to be said about that. Comes with one main campaign, and two smaller campaigns with plenty of side quests and other secrets.
There are two expansions available to purchase: Forsaken (Year 2 Content | Forsaken/Black Armory/Gambit Prime/Reckoning/Menagerie) and Shadowkeep (Year 3 Content | Shadowkeep & Current Seasonal Content)
If the base game catches your fancy, maybe look into Shadowkeep & maybe the upcoming Year 4 content to eventually come out.

Final Thoughts:
The game is mostly good. While Bungie has decided to opt-in for more FOMO strategies as of Year 3, the game is still good to play, just in moderation.
Current seasonal content (Season 10 as of this review) is very lackluster in most categories. Audio, Graphics and Story aside, the actual additions to gameplay were rather weak and have been on a steady decline since the release of Shadowkeep.
In the end, there's plenty to do, but not everything is viable. Play for fun, play with friends, play to make friends. The Reddit Discord Server (r/DtG) & D2 PC LFG Servers are some of the best servers to find people to play with. (You just need to make that first step towards putting yourself out there.)
Posted 8 June, 2020.
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Showing 1-3 of 3 entries