Recent reviews by cusman

I have 500+ hours with the game on PlayStation 5 but decided to get on Steam after seeing it is Steam Deck compatible for when I am away from my console. All my time played on Steam is on the Steam Deck.

I needed to adjust some graphics settings to reduce the motion blur / depth of field to improve visibility but defaults for most other graphics / display settings seem fine. The icons / text can be a little too small, but once I got everything set the way I like I am able to go on missions and complete them including highest difficulty for each faction. It is hardest on planets that have lower visibility which is true for my experience on PS5 as well.

I would like to be able to map the additional buttons on the bottom of Steam Deck for quick grenade and stim similar to how I have my DualSense Edge Controller setup for the game when playing on PlayStation 5. I could also use one of the 4 buttons on bottom to use for push/toggle to talk.

I have option to remote play Helldivers 2 on my PlayStation Portal, but Steam Deck has better control responsiveness since it is running native while the PlayStation Portal streams it from my console.

Running the game does eat the Steam Deck battery capacity fast, but when I got 10% battery left alert, I plugged in the USB-C charger and was able to continue playing without issue until I was ready to stop.

Love the Steam Deck for when I travel and now I can play Helldivers 2 on the go as well.

Still early into the game, but managed to beat boss of first area on 3rd run. Everything I like about original Hades is here, but a new story, with new cast of characters, new weapons and enemies.

Plays great on the Steam Deck!

Update: Got around to playing some more after the 1.0 Release and now Achievements are also working (including retroactively) as I continue the game from the time I had played it during Early Access. I think I'll still opt to restart from beginning because I feel a bit lost in the story from my large gap between playing this a little during Early Access and the 1.0 Release.

I mostly like this game for its art style and personality. It is a chill game to play and enjoy on my Steam Deck.

What attracted me is the unique asynchronous competitive real-time strategy multiplayer game design. What engaged me for 100's of hours is the fun factor and sheer variety of opponent bases you would encounter as you progress since each base if designed by some other player. It also takes a long time to unlock / earn every unit, command card, perk you may be after as you focus on building and improving your own base which other players may attack.

All that said, I don't recommend the game if you are prone to getting whaled by free-to-play monetization schemes.

Dark Souls with Guns designed for up to 3 player co-op.

Randomly generated Campaign and Adventure Mode that you can re-roll and play on 4 different difficulties. Hardcore Mode variant for the main Campaign / Adventure mode.

Lots of bosses and secrets with rewards for playing through full spectrum of games many options. Plenty to keep you challenged and enjoying.

Swamps of Corsus DLC added Corsus Adventure where we can fight against Iskal Queen and it added Survival Mode which is akin to a roguelike and provides the most replay value. The Discord community for this game is active and makes it easy to find people to play with using Discord voice-chat.

Subject 2923 DLC added Reisum Adventure and a new Campaign to take the story further from end of original campaign. The main prize for me is the addition of Reisum for Survival Mode and all the new weapons, armor, rings, amulets, and traits to further increase the viable fun loadout / build varieties so different players can play using their own play styles or switch things up as they try new loadouts / builds.

Classic Age of Empires made better. What is not to like?

Easily one of the best games I have played to date, but requires very high skill and focus to be successful.

The description below is straight from Parallel Circles website about Flat Heroes which I am including as is, because it is accurate, concise and comprehensive.

Flat Heroes is a minimalist super intense local multiplayer game with special care put into the game-feel and polishing of every detail in a trendy graphic experience. The game includes multiple cooperative and competitive modes for 1-4 players and features squares!

• Intuitive and delightful controls
  
• Play alone or share the experience with up to 4 friends on all modes
  
• Drop in and Drop Out Co-Op
  
• More than 300 handcrafted Levels
  
• Face 10 unique epic final Bosses
  
• Unlimited survival Levels, with daily challenges and Leaderboards
  
• Versus Modes offer you and your friends an option to compete against each other

I had never heard of this game until I received it as a gift from a friend who had great instincts that I would thoroughly enjoy this great game.

Gauntlet Slayer Edition is a skill based co-op action game that you can play as one of four (or five if you get the DLC) characters that each control and play differently. Furthermore, how you equip your character can also affect how you can best play with your chosen character. Each player in the squad must pick a different character so hopefully everybody you plan to play with can find a different choice appealing to their individual play style preferences.

I enjoy the gameplay of it because it really requires a good team all doing well with their disparate characters to make it through the harder of the 18 levels cycle for Endless Mode and the challenge keeps increasing with each cycle of those 18 floors.

There is a Story Campaign Mode that serves as great way to really familiarize and get comfortable with your character choice and earn enough Gold to find the right upgrade options for your play style. The Hard Campaign lets you step it up a notch, earn more gold and forces good squad reliance, and I think does well to prepare you for the Endless Mode where the real extended replayability comes where resource management and survival become most important over longer duration of play.

I also really enjoy the 18 unique Colosseum on daily rotation as a way to earn all 18 capes for each character. It forces use of different character combination that you may not play much otherwise. Gives a real appreciation of how well someone more practiced with a certain character has been doing when you play something other than your main.

Helldivers is a skill based twin-stick shooter where you go up against 3 radically different alien factions with up to 4 players with any mix of online or local co-op featuring realistic military themed weapons, tactical strategic options, and friendly fire.

It is set in a dystopian future where players fight to protect Super Earth where the Helldivers are the last line of defense to help in the Spread of Managed Democracy. The game doesn't feature a typical campaign story as it follows an endless design where it gives a brief intro and then lets the player play at their pace, picking from 1 of 12 (now 15) difficulties in up to 3 different war fronts.

It is only by completing proceduraly generated missions and conquering planets that players collectively push back against the enemy factions away from Super Earth and towards their respective home worlds. If the players can reach and defeat any of the enemy factions, those enemy factions are out of the game until only Super Earth remains. Conversely if players are unable to keep any enemy faction away, they can initiate an attack on Super Earth and blow it up. In either scenario, after a brief cinematic and some global war statistics, immediately as one war ends, another begins and the cycle continues.

The progression system used by the game uses both XP earned as well as accomplishment based unlocks and on-mission sample gathering to help upgrade various options in their arsenal. Leveling up by XP is based on completing objectives within missions which lead the player through a series of military ranks starting from Recruit all the way up to Admiral of Super Earth. A player doesn't get stronger (so this is not an action-RPG), just gets different ranks keeping with the military theme and has access to some weapons and options that a starting player may not.

Along the way earning new Ranks, the player will unlock additional Primary Weapon options, Perk options, and cosmetic Outfits.

The accomplishment based unlocks have to do with completing planets across the full spectrum of difficulty the game offers. Combined together each Helldiver quickly accumulates a massive collection of loadout options.

The additional options aren't necessarily better as much as just different since there is a strong attempt by the developers to give everything pros and cons in an attempt to keep things generally well balanced. What this does is allow new players to play with more veteran players and the more significant difference between the players will always remain about skill, not progression.

In addition to all the base game content and continued developer support to grant players additional free DLC content, they also released a couple of free major expansions to the game adding in new Bosses (called Masters), a Horde variant mission type (called Retaliatory Strikes), and additional enemy units and objectives that can show up on missions. All these free additions have been complimented with a wide assortment of paid DLC options that provide players even more options for their loadouts. Indeed, many favored items seen in frequent use by players are from one of these paid DLC packs.

For myself, I have found all the paid DLC options to be worthwhile additions. Some more than others, but no regrets on any of those DLC pack purchases. It may seem like a lot if you are just now looking at the game, but I have been playing the game since it first released in March, 2015 on PlayStation and it may help you to know that the wide selection has grown over time as the developers continue to support while players continue to play and enjoy.

I decided to get the game again on Steam from scratch once it became available here and I continue to play on both platforms because I have made different friends I like to continue playing more with on both platforms. Steam and Playstation players cannot play with each other (no cross-play), but the Galactic Campaign of players vs the enemy factions in a global co-op campaign is shared between the two platforms.

Helldivers is the best 4P co-op multiplayer game (local or online) I have played to date. I look for and play a lot of co-op games, and I haven't found anything else that even comes close.

I got to play this game as part of a free weekend promotion. I started with the solo content which is the 10 Situations which do a really great job of orienting a new player to the various gameplay mechanics and options while letting you play as a number of different Operators who each have unique equipment / abilities which you otherwise have to unlock using earned renown points.

Thoroughly enjoyed the 10 situations played solo and the steady learning curve and increasing challenge they presented.

My first foray into the multiplayer was with Article 5, which is the last Situation and seems to be the only 'story' in the game as it has an opening cinematic and an ending cinematic. I found this both challenging and rewarding to complete, although I had some struggles waiting on matchmaking and a team that could work well together to get it done.

After this, my options are to either play PvP or PvE. Since I am someone that prefers co-op multiplayer, that is where I went. The PvE mode is called Terrorist Hunt. You can play on either Normal, Hard, or Realistic, and it is basically missions like Article 5, except more generic part of some randomzied automatic multiplayer playlist. While Article 5 on Normal even was quite a challenge (due to more aggressive AI and traps and impeded vision from the poison gas stuff), these regular Terrorist Hunt missions on Normal are a bit too easy to be challenging / fun for me.

So I tried to get into some Hard matchmaking. Here is my first bit of negative experience with the game. It would take nearly 5 minutes to get into a match waiting for the required 5 players to join before one could play on Hard. I personally found this difficulty more satisfying to play on, but he matchmaking is a tough pill to swallow as it seems not enough other people are trying to play on Hard. So I tried Realistic and despite multiple attempts over 2 days of the free trial period, I never got into a single Realistic playlist because matchmaking could never find enough people to make the required 5 person squad.

So on PvE, Normal too easy, and Hard / Realistic not enough people playing.

I also gave the PvP a try. This is also easy to get into like the Normal PvE, and I enjoyed some of it, but PvP even in this game still really not my thing.

Is it a good game? Very polished in general. Gameplay is rock solid. Many things to like

Am I glad I tried it? Absolutely. I really enjoyed the 10 situations, and the few Hard PvE I got into

Did I buy it? No. If I can't find other people to play Hard / Realistic PvE against or the matchmaking takes 5+ minutes, then I wouldn't get much playtime out of the purchase. Needing 5 to start seems to be a problem, since game does allow less than 5 to stay and repeat the mission. If it allowed people to join groups in spectator mode, and then go on next mission with them. Some better way to do it instead of staring at a matchmaking screen for 5+ minutes. It doesn't even allow one to browse loadouts, do upgrades, etc while waiting on the matchmaking. May seem silly, but how long the matchmaking takes for the Hard (possibly due to how few people are trying to play that) is really the main reason I didn't end up buying the game.

Would I recommend this game? No. Can't recommend something I didn't buy myself.