Recent reviews by Fsac

One of the more unique aspects of HELLDIVERS II gameplay is how the developers have cleverly incorporated real-life missions into the game itself. Take, for instance, the Major Order that dropped on May 3rd 2024, where they introduced the third opposing faction to the game, a mysterious megacorp known only as "SONY." With scant little information trickling in from High Command, players were left to their own devices when it came to stopping this new threat. After months of in-game training a plan was enacted wherein the playerbase would actually reviewbomb the game itself to overcome this tyrannical new threat. As usual, Helldivers from across Super Earth banded together in a single-tear-down-left-cheek display of DEMOCRACY and completed this Major Order before the weekend was out.

↑ → ↓ ↓ ↓ PROTECTS.

Very well could have been 6X, as Nexus is eXcessive amounts of fun!

Given how differently each empire and leader can feel to play I was kinda concerned about balance when first approaching the game. Less so now, after a good number of games (and wins) under my belt. At the highest levels of play, perhaps... but the developers have since added a "draft" mode to alleviate those concerns.

Super impressed with this game and team!

There is just something about these one-man passion projects that really do it for me. World Seed reminds me a lot of Siralem Ultimate, where ample planning, grinding, experimentation and risk rewards you with noticeable gains on progression. I'm having a blast!

Google "Hal fixing a light bulb" and you'll understand everything you need to about Melvor Idle.

Even after putting in for a refund on this game, I still find myself unable to actually give it a negative review. The concept is sound, and the gameplay follows suit. I see a lot of potential in this one, and will definitely be checking back in with it in the future. The problems I have with the game are more of the technical nature. Most critically, the game repeatedly crashes on me during the very next mission following available demo content. That's a huge red flag for me, and if this were Early Access, I'd probably be willing to look past it. Additionally, this game does not do well at higher resolutions, and certainly not on an ultrawide monitor. The blurriness I can work with (heck, I still play EverQuest to this say, original graphics) but things like being able to see elements from previous scenes around the edges of the current scene is more than a little jarring.

This is one of those rare DLCs that improve a game so much as to be a near required purchase.

While I didn't find a ton of use for the abomination on my first playthrough, I had an absolute blast with the Reaper. More skins are always great. The potion system is great, on the whole (not a fan of the experimentation mechanic, though.) Large enemies were interesting, and the new bosses both fun and challenging. The 6th floor was a very welcome addition, offering a host of new enemies which all provided their own unique twist to cull your forces. Finally, the new end boss was... well, I won't even go into that, other than to say I'm excited to see how I handle it the next playthrough on a completely different strategy.

Played the demo, and enjoyed the demo. Unfortunately, not going to be recommending the full game at this time. Reasoning is as follows:

1. The absolute first thing you are presented on first load are the game modes -- normal, two missions (the first being the demo content,) and four big "coming soon" boxes. While I certainly appreciate the plans for future development, I don't believe this is the best way to showcase it. Here, it comes across as "we're Early Access, but didn't want to be branded that way." Meanwhile, past EA titles like Oxygen Not Included and Hades actually had the opposite effect, feeling like polished 1.0's with a constant hype-train of new content updates.

2. Speaking of missions, and the lack thereof. If you've already played the demo, then be prepared to be forced into playing it again! After completing it again, I decided to go ahead and do the second mission, as some potentially important stuff seemed to be gated behind it. This mission plays as an almost entirely different game, and I didn't find it enjoyable one bit. One moment you find yourself playing a decent enough Roguelite/Deckbuilder, and the next you're staring at a randomized puzzle game. Worse, while I very much applaud the difficulty I experienced, I couldn't determine if it was intentional or not. Specifically, I couldn't determine if the difficulty I faced a complex AI, thwarting my every attempt to foil it, or if it was just a good ol' fashioned RNG screwfest. Both my cynicism and dreadful release experience with Nowhere Prophet has my money on the latter.

3. Finally, technical/performance. While the game felt fine in-game, I did get several game-minimizing pop-ups from Windows altering me to the fact that the OS was seeing some performance trouble, and recommended I change theme to compensate. I've literally never seen that pop-up in the life of this computer (years) even with the worst performing games around.

When I first heard that the developers were purposefully withholding a boatload of the content during Early Access for it's eventual release, not going to lie, I kinda thought that was a good idea. Now that we've seen the result of that, I no longer believe this to be a move of cunning brilliance.

More than 48 of the first 72 hours of release did not have functioning Online mode. Bugs were rampant. Exploits were easily found. Balance was nowhere to be seen. This game could have lived in Early Access for quite some time. Now it's dying a horrible, agonizing death at release. A well-deserved one at that.

Hellishly good.

I'm going to thumbs up, but with a HUGE caveat. Nowhere Prophet is a decent enough game, and balance has come a long way since it's initial release. Ultimately, though, there are a number of mechanical and balance "quirks" that make the entire experience off-putting to me, personally. Quirks that I have to imagine were core design to the game itself, and that it's fans enjoy greatly... so I certainly don't mean that as a slight against it. Simply that it's not to my tastes.