Recent reviews by Spare

I play Enlisted through Gaijin's Launcher rather than Steam's Launcher so my hours on the review won't be correct.

Enlisted is balanced around the sort of realism that one could expect from War Thunder's Realistic Battles mode, where bullets and explosions are lethal and reckless positioning will punish you. Enlisted features War Thunder's vehicle combat systems with some arcade tweaks for gameplay purposes. If you know how to use the tanks in that game, you'll feel right at home here.

In this game, you spawn a squad of soldiers to control, you can play as one while the others follow your orders. You can switch between them at will as long as they are still alive and it gives you options for dealing with each situation. Each soldier can be kitted out with weapons you've unlocked via the research tree in a similar fashion to War Thunder where you gain research as you gain experience points. The Battle Rating of a weapon shows you roughly how strong it can be and the system exists to reduce unfair matchups like making someone with bolt-action rifles fight assault rifles. As you advance through the tree, you gain access to more powerful weaponry and advance in Battle Rating of those weapons.

As of writing, you will start with BR 1 squads within the factions: USA (USA, Commonwealth Forces), United Axis Army (Germany and Italy), USSR (Russia), and Imperial Japan. There are infantry squads, armored personnel carriers, tanks of various types, fighter planes, attacker planes, and jets in the game. You gain experience and research for the faction you are playing in that match.

Like Gaijin's other offerings, this game mainly focuses on objective areas being captured and it works well enough. Unlike War Thunder's settings, you will recognize the battlefields of Enlisted easily, including places like: Normandy, North Africa, Gare-de-Saint Lo, and more.

While I have spent money on this game for premium squads and more squad slots, I've never felt like I needed to purchase premium account time to grind things out before and I can't say the same for War Thunder, if that means anything to you. I appreciate the in-game item awards of Enlisted far more than War Thunder as well. Battle passes in Enlisted are simple in comparison to WT as it only requires you complete simple challenges that you could easily do without knowing beforehand. In short, I'd say that Enlisted respects the time put in far more than War Thunder.

You should give this one a try, I recommend it. If you're a fan of ForgottenWeapons.com, you'll love this one, I think.

War Thunder has been around for a while and has lots of content and lots to grind for. I have a specific interest in armored and aerial combat that only this game really fulfills to an extent and I would only recommend this game to people with a similar interest because if not, the way this game plays will not carry your experience. I entered this game interested mainly in World War II German tank technology as do many players who found their interest in various pieces of war media. If you're here because you want to fight in a Tiger tank, there are probably better games to get that experience.

With that disclaimer out of the way, War Thunder has a lot going on and it can be a lot to take in all at once so I'll explain the game the best I can and as simply as possible. A new player will start at 1.0 Battle Rating with Reserve vehicles: (at the time of review) ground vehicles, planes, patrol boats, and small naval ships. You are matchmade into games based on the highest Battle Rating of your lineup of vehicles. The Battle Rating or "BR" is the way the game rates a vehicle's combat effectiveness overall in the game. This tries to prevent unfair matchups like a M5A1 light tank having to fight a T-90 Main Battle Tank.

As stated, you will start at 1.0 BR and, by earning score in matches from damaging enemies and completing objectives, earn Research Points (RP) and Silver Lions (SL) in order to make progress on a new vehicle. For example: play well in your He 51 biplane and you can unlock a Bf 109 fighter plane. As you complete research on a vehicle, you then use Silver Lions (the currency that you earn freely by playing matches) to purchase the new vehicle. As you rise through the Battle Ratings vehicles will advance in technology.

There are also back end aspects of the game to be mindful of. These include the skill training of your crews, the costs of doing business (such as ammunition), and the cost of repairing your vehicles when they are damaged or destroyed. It's not as much as it sounds.
As you play, your crew will passively learn and allow you to spend crew XP to make your vehicle operators better at their jobs. New players will have new crews and each slot in your lineup has their own crew XP and vehicles they know how to use. Upgrading your crew skills can be things like Targeting where your Gunner will move the barrel both up and down AND left and right at the same time rather than in steps, allowing you to get the gun on target faster. When you purchase a new vehicle, not only do you spend your SL on the vehicle, you also pay a SL fee to train a crew to man the vehicle; so it matters which crew slot you train so you can form a lineup of vehicles for your matches.
After each match, you can check how much that match costed you in SL. When your vehicle is destroyed, you have to pay a SL fee to repair it otherwise you can wait for a set amount of real time for it to be repaired if you're hurting for SL. Keep in mind that the vehicles marked Reserve at 1.0 BR are free to repair so you'll never get blocked from playing the game. Many types of ammo also have costs to replenish. Often better types of ammo will cost a small fee to refill any used ammo, which you can also toggle off if you're hurting for SL.

Depending on the game mode you are playing, maps, vehicle performance, and other elements may change. In Arcade modes, vehicle handling is very game-like and you'll see where enemies are even through walls. Often Arcade maps are smaller and sometimes more exotic with objectives that can be wild. In Realistic modes, vehicle handling is more grounded while letting you operate in third person, game modes are usually territory control or target destruction, and the game no longer tells you where to aim. I recommend Realistic Battles. I don't have much experience with Simulator mode but it requires you to play in first person, with very little information displayed including teammates names, and there is friendly fire. This mode is a challenge and it pays better than other modes.

There are tons of maps with varying themes and locations. Vehicle eras aren't locked to certain maps, either, which takes away from immersion for me. You can fight in a modern city in your Tiger tank. From my earlier experiences, one of War Thunder's biggest negatives in my eyes is the map designs and how they are balanced. Often maps will have next to no protection for spawn areas. this leads to steamrolling and spawnkilling, especially at higher Battle Ratings where vehicles can engage from further away. Older maps that weren't designed with newer vehicles in mind still appear and maps that work well for World War II vehicles often don't work well with Main Battle Tanks from the 2000's era. You will experience this issue, likely often, and at the time of writing, it doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. All you can really do is learn to work around the poor map layouts.

Aside from that, there are also several premium vehicles for purchase with real money. These vehicles are often powerful or unique in some way and while many are just extras for enthusiasts, some are very powerful and common in battles. They are never required to be successful, of course, but you may face them more than you like, unfortunately.

War Thunder often hosts events that reward exclusive vehicles as rewards for grinding a long time during the event. These events also often have little game inside a game elements that, personally, seem to only exist to force players to spend more time on the game. Again, if you don't have an interest in war vehicles already, this game may not be worth your time because it often feels like it doesn't respect your time. Progressing in general can feel like it requires you to treat this game like a second job; which works for Youtubers but not for many of us that actually do work jobs.

I do like the gameplay, don't get me wrong. There's a lot here to experience and enjoy especially as you personally improve and learn how to succeed. I have 631 hours as of writing this to say that much and that's just what I've done on PC, nevermind the thousands of hours on Playstation 4. Yeah this game has crossplay and cross-progression (sort of).

If you do choose to try this game, go in patient, check the keybindings, and make sure not to frustrate yourself too much playing. This game is ROUGH and I've stopped play sessions many times from frustrating matches. It certainly helps to make friends and join groups. Good luck.

I was hesitant when my friend asked me to get this game but after playing in his survivor community, creating my own, and finishing my first story, I'm glad he got me playing. The short of it is: if you're looking for a fun solo or co-op open world zombie game, this is one to consider. Read below to get an idea of the game.

State of Decay 2 in so many words is a zombie survival, third person combat game. It features a huge and expanding arsenal of recognizable firearms and melee weapons such as the Glock 17 9mm and Crowbar but also had unexpected things the more savvy would recognize such as KSG shotgun or APC9 submachinegun.

I had a few issues with the game in the form of performance. Often when the game cloud-saves, it would freeze my screen for a moment and this was bad for a game like this where zombies are charging me. Gameplay-wise, zombies could occasionally counter my attempts at takedowns with ridiculous reaction speed (I.E. takedown starts and fails because the zombie instantly changes direction to face me) that would cause me to take damage. Some game elements are unclear. When I started, I was unaware that completing a community's story would end that community and they were lost forever. This was luckily changed recently but it still forces you to move to a new area. Weird choices but overall a great experience.

The game caters to a wide array of playstyles and skill levels. You can independently choose how difficult combat is like how much damage zombies dish out and take, how generous or rare loot can be, and how difficult or easy it is to run your survivor community. (I play on Lethal zombies, Green map, and Green community, so combat is always a challenge but the rewards are also great and my community isn't too hard to run for me.)

The game world feels full of stuff to do. You assign a leader to your group and, depending on the character, they can become a type of leader and that dictates the sort of attitude your community has to the world. This is very customizable, too, because even though you are given the choice of two characters who then get two more in the tutorial, you can completely trade out anyone. Often you'll be visited by someone wanting to join your community and you can say yes or no. You can dress up your survivors, give them weapons, you can even recruit one to follow you if you're lonely and they have unlimited ammo as an AI. You could be driving on a supply run and get a call on the radio to go help a neighbor but you don't HAVE to, though they might die forever or turn into a hostile group. Bandits might move into town.

One of the big gameplay elements is how you layout your home. Where you make your home matters and there are different ways to lay it out based on what you need and want. You might not need to find a power source because your home has power built-in.

The big core combat challenge is clearing the "Blood Plague" from the area. Several spots on the map will be super dangerous to go to because blood plague kills quickly and makes zombies stronger. It's a decent challenge and incredibly cinematic the way it plays out clearing them. Oh and also this game does perma-death so if you lose a character, they are gone and that adds to the tension greatly. On Lethal combat difficulty, I was always cautious but it never felt like I died instantly. This is a play smarter not harder game.

Give it a try and if it's on sale, maybe bring some friends.

This game is pretty, the music is fitting, the story is okay. The racing is fun and feels good, you can pick it up quickly on Normal difficulty.

Gameplay-wise, Heat suffers from core mechanics being overwhelming to new players, including myself. In previous titles, the player would have limits placed on maximum "heat level" to prevent new players from being curb-stomped by more dangerous police enemies. NFS Heat does not have these limits. In fact, the game difficulty has no bearing on police chases and these can be incredibly difficult to deal with for most of the game. This matters because you earn "Rep" to level up and continue the story by doing races and cop chases in the night part of the game; and if you are busted by the cops you barely get any Rep points AND you lose ALL of your money. You aren't given tools like, in older titles, destructible objects to get the cops off of you. The best you get in Heat is pushing them into the water or using jumps.

It doesn't appear that these mechanics will be updated to be more forgiving, either. This can be a super challenging game and with the way the game's mechanics are, I don't recommend this one, or at very least wait for a big discount.

Hell Let Loose sets out to create a pseudo-realistic second world war battlefield with a strong focus on the unforgiving realities of combat. The game requires players to work together and communicate through the chain of command to coordinate the assault or defense of objective areas to succeed. There's two sides to the team: the front and supporting units.

Often you'll find yourself fighting on the front, working with your squad and the other soldiers around you. Gunfighting is deadly with damage very similar to reality where a single rifle round to the body is often enough to kill. Communicating with a microphone is important in order to be the most effective. Movement is fairly grounded so smart positioning and use of cover is required.

There are also options for players who prefer supporting the team rather than direct combat. You can drive supply trucks and build fortifications. Cover can change some objectives entirely. In order to build, you'll need to communicate with your squad leader to arrange supply trucks or drops but be patient. Know also that there will be flankers hunting for support units behind the frontline to give their team the advantage. One good engineer can reshape a whole battle.

A lot of this game requires a lot of patience and often times you won't be able to do what you planned. Some matches, playing as a tank crew won't work out. Sometimes, you won't get to play the class you want to because many of them are limited to one per squad. In many cases, you won't get to play the Sniper class like in the youtube videos.

I've played a lot of this game and, for a while, it was my favorite. At the time of writing, development has been slow and it's been like that for a while. Many updates come with very little and lots of focus on paid cosmetics. If you enjoy what's here already, you could get a lot of fun out of the game.

If you like games like Squad, this one will be familiar and potentially enjoyable to you.

Now I feel the need to also say that many of the roles you could take up in Hell Let Loose and struggle to enjoy here, you may find better elsewhere. I wasn't paid to include this but it did occur to me. If you find yourself struggling to get your preferred playstyle in this game, maybe Enlisted (Gaijin's free-to-play WWII shooter) would serve better. Can't find a tank crew or just don't like the tank gameplay of HLL? Enlisted lets you control the whole tank yourself. You built grand fortifications for your team as the Engineer just to have no one build a spawn point and it all goes to waste in HLL? Play as a whole squad of them with supplies included on each soldier AND build the spawn yourself! Never get to play the Sniper class? Spawn a whole squad of them and be able to equip scoped FG-42s, Kar98ks, M1903A4s, M91/30s, SVT-40s and many more choices than HLL has. It really adds up in the end and this is half of the reason why I don't really recommend Hell Let Loose. The only gameplay element it has/does better than Enlisted is the chain of command voice chat channels. They are two very different games, of course, but it stands that many gameplay choices a player could make in Hell Let Loose would be far easier to achieve and enjoy in Enlisted instead. Take that for what you will.