Recent reviews by [HUN]ColemanV

I can confirm that it brings back the mood and it would be so nice to play but I just can't, but that is not the game's fault.
I cannot request a "retirement age speed" setting to accomodate me, and so I'll have to refund,

So I'll just play the soundtrack and remember the good times, while wishing I could play this like I did when this came out for the first time.
But thing is, I'm 45 now.
The game got faster or I got slower.
Probably both. I no longer have the reflexes for it.

Cheers fellow gamers, enjoy your time while you can!

Holy hell, no.

Like, you are in a world where every injury can mean the end.
The survival of any and all communities is relying on UV lights, medicine is hard to come by.

And some geniuses figured a fight club themed DLC will fit in this world, because it totally makes sense to patch up morons that beat up each other for entertainment, when you barely have supplies for legit injuries.

The responsible people should be sent to some course where they can work on their reasoning skills before they are allowed to come up with ideas again.

If they would have kept the movement and mechanics of the first game and just transplanted that into a wider open world, I would have been perfectly happy with the result.

Instead the parkour part feels inconsistent - like randomly failing routine jumps or getting stuck on objects that are so low you can peek over in a parkour based game - the story is questionable quality at best; world building is ruining even the things that were decent in the first; the open world is populated with moronic characters, doing moronic conflicts for moronic reasons.

Without spoilers let's just use the example of main characters trying to kill the player, then ask for a favor. Some of them doing it on multiple occasions.

On world building:
This is a world ravaged by a plague of zombies.
This is the second time around on the same ride so to speak.
Water, food, medicine is a real struggle to get and UV lights are the only things keeping creatures at bay during the nights.

So what people of this world do?
They place exposed UV lights to questionable locations, waste electricity on strings of regular bulbs in a very artsy fashion, and at larger hubs, blasting music. Because that is totally a thing to do where the creatures of the night can potentially climb and jump and not every inch of your community is covered with UV lights.

Moronic designs are even on display at rooftop safe spots for sleep, which literally consist of a bed, a construction light with UV bulbs and a generator.
Mind you the lights are within the reach of any creature coming that way because it is directed at the bed. Besides generators are not known for their silent operation either, but you'll be safe, because reasons.

Some parts of the game stress the importance of silence within this cruel world. Then turn right around and have the characters yell, bang on doors, argue as loud as possible and generally do everything they can to get some loving attention from the creatures around.

I'm at hour 35, did some side quests to build up my character so I can take on the main story, but the dumbness of the world and characters is as enjoyable as nails on chalkboard. The more I play the more I notice.

Sure, the first game had some dumbness too but was a bit more grounded and the story felt more engaging even with the soap opera aspects at some points.

Folks at Techland lost the plot. This all of this could've been explained away with a campy route like Dead Island while switching to the larger world. But they wanted to both adhere to the first game to some degree and force it in a larger community aspect.

Sadly for that, the writing of the community motivations and conflicts is beyond dumb and without spoilers I can't get into specifics so I'll just leave it at that.

Thankfully I bought this on a heavy discount because I owned the previous game, but at this point I feel like I won't even keep playing.

There are better ways to spend some game time.

(and then there are the regular issues like falling off ledge because controls fail to react, or get stuck between 2 creatures because the player character is wedged in between their collision models, then upon dying, get respawned like a district away instead of the closest safe spot)

No, thank you.

Dying Light 2 will collect dust in my steam library in a firmly uninstalled state.

This is exactly what a racing game should be.

None of the nonsense the lates NFS pulled with the annoying graphics effects that made the game look like it was created by someone hopped up on energy drinks and copious amounts of candy until becoming jittery.

This brought me right back to my teen years when I accidentally came across a gamer club with a single SEGA Dreamcast console with Tokyo Xtreme Racer being the only game for it.

I got hooked on the way the driving felt fun and realistic enough to feel the weight transfer while shifting lanes too fast, or losing traction on worn out tires.

Progression and unlocking tuner parts was fun back then and they're still fun now.

Bought this game and intended to just check on it, and I find myself nearly 4 hours later exiting only because of other responsibilities. If I had my way I would've kept playing until the need to sleep would catch up with me.

Solid game in Early Access state already that brings the feels of NFS Underground 2 free roam mode as I drive to explore the freeway, find parking spots, meet people and race until the wheels fall off my ride.

I hope the devs keep adding to this title because it sure is fun!

Review UPDATE:
After finishing the Early Access, my opinion remain unchanged of this game is what racing games should be.

I ran into some minor flaws, some quality of life improvements missing but those can be worked on and they don't take away anything from the major draw of the basic gameplay loop that gets you hooked.

Every car feels different, and you can actually punch well above your level if you pick where you engage another racer. C1 Inner Loop became a home turf where I beaten lvl21 opponents while being lvl12 myself.

One major inconvenience is that we don't have a skill/perk that could be unlocked early on, that would allow the use of illegal crossings between freeway directions.
The gaps are there already, just cordoned off with steel cables.

The reason why I find this inconvenient because the legendary mechanic upgrades are costly.
So when you take an upgrade with the intent of using it to beat a difficult opponent, then the opponent is moving with the traffic in the other direction it gets bad.
Because sometimes you can end up driving forever to find a parking spot that would allow you to turn around.

Jumping back to garage to then start in the right direction would eliminate the temporary upgrade.

I've put 11 hours into this game in 2 days and gave it a fair shake.

I have attempted to play Career, Classic and Co-op mode and all of those had issues you would expect from Early Access.

Career has some basic popup tutorials that are passable up to the point of completing your first mission.
From there, nothing.
You are left with a building interface with nothing explained.

I figured, I would come back to Career once I found out the game mechanics work.

So I launched Classic mode, thinking that it surely is the way the devs intended the game to be played if they call it "classic".

Game mode starts, I get the first objective.
Yes! It is a rescue. There we go!
I get to the vehicle spawning station, select the only available default boat.

And then the game is stating that the boat will spawn without some components that have not been unlocked yet.

Some of those components were part of the hull, under the water line.

Meaning: the default boat will flood and sink upon spawning, and even if that would not be the case, there are also other components missing which makes the engine inoperable.

So there you are with an objective which you cannot complete because there is no functional boat available to you, nor is there a tutorial to how to build your own, not even a blueprint or a checklist of parts so you could figure it out on your own.

I did attempt the play Co-op too, and found empty servers, with the exception of the ones where people play some sort of PvP, where you cannot really do anything if you don't know the game mechanics, which leads back to the lack of tutorial in other game modes.

That is besides the fact that when you expect a rescue game, PvP is not exactly what comes to mind.

The ideas of the game are great, it is what made me buy it in the first place.
I wanted to like this game. I voted with my wallet, by buying in with all the DLCs.

And here I am now, attempting to appeal to Steam for a refund, as this game should've never left the Early Access state, let alone having DLCs.

I wish good luck to the devs and hope with time these issues will get dealt with so the initial concept could make the game a great experience, but for now I cannot recommend this game.

(Mind you I was all in when Space Engineers started in Early Access, also with Kerbal Space Program, so I'm no stranger to games where you have to put your mind to work)

EDIT: No surprise to me that Steam doesn't refund the game beyond the 2 hours mark.
With that however I am inclined to call the game a scam because the complexity, one cannot test and find out in 2 hours that the game is still in Early Access state.
Allowing the game to leave Early Access however is squarely on Steam's mistake.

I don't even remember when I started playing ETS2, but around the time when it was first released.
Since then the devs continued to improve, expand and polish various aspects.
As such this truck sim remains one of the most reliably chill games year after year.

Sometimes life is becoming too much, and then it really is relaxing to put on your favorite music or a podcast, or maybe even an audio book, and then just haul goods and slowly build your trucking empire.

The base game itself is good introduction and there is plenty to do within the regions it would give access to a new player. From that point forward it is up to the individual to decide how much they want to dive into becoming a globetrotter.

At big sales, the DLC regions becoming cheap enough on a regular to buy a bunch or a couple that will keep you busy until the next discount.

Connecting the World of Trucks is providing community goals with some neat decor items as rewards.

Nowdays there is even multiplayer for doing convoys, and the latest addition is driving school.

This is one of the games that is not just a game but an investment in your own future chill for years to come.

For the reasons above, I highly recommend ETS2 (and ATS too)

This game has educational vaule, and I will mark this as a positive review with the following disclaimer.

Get this game only if you know something about programming

The only thing the game really quickly educated me about is that I should'nt have tried without an education on this subject or having somewhat similar job.

For absolute beginners, there is no chance to even get started.
I'm very tempted to refund, because I was looking for a way to learn in a gaming format, hoping it would make the subject less daunting.

This game doesn't do that sadly.
Maybe if devs add a training job to establish the basics, it would be an entirely different experience.
(Throwing a .pdf file at the customer doesn't count.)

I'm not saying it as a complaint, just an observation as someone with architectural education.

Despite coming from the era of BASIC on C64, I don't have a single clue about the programming language in the game. As such I couldn't even get started with the first job.

I probably had too high expectations playing UpLink and some HackNet at some point and that is entirely my bad

As such I don't doubt the entertainment and educational value of the game, hence the positive review.

If the full game is anywhere close to this prelude, it'll be a fun time to play.

The care shows in the way the map is crafted, and the whole presentation.
Initial D vibes all over the place.

I know this is only a teaser so I won't be chalking up limitations as negative.

In this players get to experience some racing some fun, some story, some tweaking of the ride's visuals and mechanical aspects, test a couple cars at the dealership, try out some training and get just enough taste of the map to make you want to go explore the closed off sections too.

It seems the full release will be leaving a lot up to the players about how seriously they want to take the driving.
You can manage perfectly well with keyboard if you so desire, there is controller support and racing wheel too.

Personally I tested with keyboard, because I have been playing racing games like this for the past 30 years and I'm doing worse with anything else. And yet I had fun!

Looking forward to the full game!

The first time I encountered a new live service game that has a non-toxic community.
The last time I had this kind of experience was in Warframe, when it was new.
Beyond that, the game is incredibly flexible.

If you want to go all rambo, you can the game even has fun with those moments by having your character yell at the opposition like Hudson in Aliens, "-Come, get some!"
If you want to operate solo and go about completing objectives like a ninja, you can.

The game rewards learning and adapting to the various mission parameters and environment. At the same time it does punish idiocy by having enemy swarm on you, and then no amount of equipment and armor will protect you for long.

There is a bunch of things the game doesn't tell you about the GUI or about the missions themselves.
Those you have to figure out from others telling you about how to do things, or learn them on the fly or by accident.

Initially one could view that as flaws and steep learning curve in the beginning, but from another point of view, it can be something that would facilitate players teaching each other the "tricks", because watching "how to" videos doesn't replace trying out some moves in practice where the whole 40 minutes of a mission can go bad in a hurry.

On that topic, the mission length is the high-risk high-reward concept.
If you want to just do the main objectives, you can focus on those and be done with it in 10-20 minutes.
But if you want to max out your rewards, you can explore the map and gather everything you can get your hands on.

In a nutshell: the game is fun! And I don't say this lightly.
I highly recommend it, ... for Democracy!

Update at the 285 hours mark:

A bunch of people complain about the game being stale.
I disagree. It is only stale for folks that insist on grinding it, daily 2+ hours and every day.
For average people, jumping back in a couple times a week, perhaps doing a couple sets of operations on the weekend, it provides plenty of entertainment.

Major Orders also have the tendency to push players to try out guns and equipment that they wouldn't try otherwise. With this we still can find unexpected uses for gear we owned from the first day.

Some updates get a bit fumbled, with unintended cosnequences, but regardless the game remains fun.

I'm hoping to play for another 250 hours and beyond, to spread some liber-tea!

It has a short career mode, but what it lacks in story length, it makes up in mood added humor.

The developers captured the atmosphere of the 80's in the communist lands and didn't stop there.

The gameplay mechanics provide a fun gameplay loop that is presenting a feel of a constant cat and mouse game between smugglers and the player.

Even though I completed the story mode, with the new endless mode, it always is fun to pop in and check if this time the smugglers will slip something by or I'll catch them but mess up something in the process.

The perfectionists may have a real fun with this game to be a strickler for ever changing regulations and rules a border patrol officer has to abide by.

The game is like Papers Please with an added layer of fun.

One of the best games I bought that puts AAA game developers in shame with being inventive and fun.

Highly recommend!