Recent reviews by cakeulovesu

dear god, we're really getting Half-Life 3 aren't we?

(disclaimer; i'm a past team member having worked on the UI/UX of the game. i haven't been involved in its development way before release, for more than 9 months roughly)

at its core Havoc is a great idea. it takes everything that's fun and innovative from Valorant, CS:GO and Siege and put its own spin on it; it's like an arcadey, twitchy version of these otherwise much more try-hard counterparts.

i havent only worked on this game; i also basically participated in all playtests and even organised my own during its closed alpha.

yeah, closed alpha. because what we have rn is basically just an open alpha with microtransactions stacked on top.

- the terrible netcode hasn't been changed for 1+ year.
the lead dev said he has no interest in writing proper netcode for the game and always brings up excuses like "lack of funding for servers" even though he's made plenty of money with his Patreon and now the blatant, overpriced microtransactions.
these two are NOT related. you can make proper, server-authoritative, client-predicted netcode and still let players self-host their casual lobbies while ranked servers would be dev-hosted
(which wouldnt be such an expensive thing to do with a small bit of reinvestment)

- ranked&matchmaking is insanely botched.
first i'd like to mention that for the longest time, the lead dev stated he has no interest in ranked. i'm not aware of what happened, but he has since turned around and slapped together an excuse of a ranked mode only a few months before release.
just like casual, it isn't region-locked. as an european player, you WILL get brazilian players with host advantage that will destroy you while you have 500 ping and get shot behind walls.
let's say you get a fair game though. the match history is completely broken and you will often get LOSSES counted for games you genuinely won.
it does not work. and it does not deserve to be there in a game that's in a completely unplayable state at a competitive level.
rank doesn't mean ANYTHING in this game.

- monetization is ludicrous.
in closed testing, the game had a really fair system where all your skins appeared in your Steam Inventory and could be sold on the Steam Market. they were planning on selling the skins full-price in a rotating shop in-game, then you could resell them when they werent on rotation.
this has since been replaced with a locked-down system with an overpriced shop and no trading.
seriously?
40 USD for a bundle of skins that're all an identical fire PNG slapped on the base models?
5 USD for individual recolors of random guns?
all this in an unfinished, buggy alpha release of a game?

all i can say is that i'm severly dissapointed with this release. basically nothing has been changed from how the game was 6 months ago; all we got is a new gun, an unfinished ranked mode and a cashgrab store.
the chances that anything will get fixed or added in post-release are slim; the devs mentionned their lack of interest in post-release content, and one of the devs is already working on another indie project.
i doubt we will ever see another full map or any meaningful content. especially not a proper netcode rework or an over-the-board stability update (just watch Twitch and see how streamers crash left&right and struggle to keep decent ping in game lol)

try the game out. you may find it fun; and well it still is. at its heart it's snappy, precise, fun, fast. but don't expect too much.

spike + move island is the ultimate combo and i don't wanna hear otherwise

despite the cancelled PvE and shady monetization, Overwatch 2 is still the same game its predecessor was, but with regular content updates and a girthier hero roster, with the added bonus of it being F2P.
it remains one of the most fun F2P games on the market. just restrain from giving too much money to Blizzard for it :)

200 hours of the best JRPG that has even been made
10/10, will seduce kawakami again <3

short but fun and insanely well polished little game!
you grapple around and swing your anchor down at enemies will stomping at them, staying in the air and dashing all the time. no FPS in recent memory does movement quite as well as Grimhook!

fascinatingly, this game has been made by a small indie team in only 9 months, and it released for completely free. i truly admire what Unlimited Fries have done with this game and i can't wait to see more from them!

because indeed, the game ends on a cliffhanger as you discover that the island you were looking for is in ruins. if this game doesn't get a sequel i'd be shocked x)

art style is absolutely splendid and reminds me alot of Dishonored and Nier Automata. it feels like the best of both worlds, blending the painturesque texturing of the former, with the steampunk machinery and abandoned cities of the latter.

a few nitpicks here and there:
- the environment can sometimes disturb your movement. i got stuck in it a few times, like while wallrunning or even falling off the map, which can be quite frustrating. it often happens when you stray off the beaten path and try to circumvent the level design to carve your own path
- combat can sometimes be quite inconsistent. it happened to me to spam the CTRL key and to not pounce down at the ground, or enemies sometimes simply didnt die from the 123+hook combo
- i wish combat had more depth too...
- main menu UI is quite rudimentary and feels like it was done last-minute. which is fine though, you wont be spending more than a few seconds looking at it

• The atmosphere is great; visually the game is quite stunning and has a very diverse set of locations. The setting is really original; the 80s SciFi aesthetic isn't something we nearly see enough in games
  
  
• Level design can be quite good at times. I've only played Episode 1 for now but going up the Mall's 13 floors opening up doors from generators, then arriving in a sort of spacebound garden with a massive flower field filled with enemies is endearing
  
  
• Weapons are quite varied and there's plenty of gadgets and perks to pick up and use. The compiler feature in general adds quite alot of freshness to gameplay
  
  
• The game doesn't take itself too seriously; there's a scene in Episode 1 where right before reaching the end, you find yourself in an arena; there's a confetti explosion and disco music plays while you're submerged by waves and waves of enemies and bosses.
  When you reach the end of an Episode the characters all appear doing disco dance moves and there's a preety cool transition added to it.
  It's quite refreshing and fun!

• You're kinda just thrown into this game without a tutorial or any sort of explanation to the story, which kinda downplays the actually-quite-good atmosphere of the game. It's a pity when you think that the writer for L4D himself works on this game and yet there's preety much no story. I know it might not seem like a prioriy for a coop horde shooter, but the lack of one makes the whole adventure feels pointless.
  As an example, L4D's survivors always had a clear reason as to why they're going somewhere; "we're going to this safehouse to hopefully find other surivivors" or "we're going to this place because we're low on supplies and we need to stock up". Stuff like "we need to go up this elevator" or "we need the flux-decapacitator-decuplator-thingamajig" just doesn't speak to anyone.
  L4D's environmental storytelling helped to immerse yourself in its post-apocalyptic world. You weren't just mindlessly running around killing aliens in a spaceship and doing meaningless tasks because you're told to do so
  
  
• While i disagree with most people, and think the gunplay is quite solid (decent punch to the recoil, crosshair doesn't stay centered and reacts to recoil and the character's movement etc), the actual impact on enemies is minimal. You encounter a LOT of grunts, and each one dies in a single bullet to the brain or 2-3 bullets in the body. There's no gibbing, no satisfying gore, they just flop to the ground when killed
  
  
• The Horde NEEDS better audio. There needs to be fleshy impact sounds when they got shot at; they need to make loud stomping sounds and shout at the top of their lungs when they run at you like in L4D
  It feels surreal to see hundreds of aliens run at you and you don't hear a sound! As if you were shooting at holograms or something
  This is the main thing i'd work on right now if i were a dev
  
  
• Characters lack, well, for lack of a better words, character. Their actual designs are fine, but their faces dont move and constantly have this look to them that i can't describe... The best way to describe them is that they look like a Tony Hawks Pro Skater character you slapped your face on with that camera feature.
  
  
• Speaking of characters, the way they deliver lines is awful; they tend to cut eachother out constantly just to talk about random things; they like to all spew out "CHARGER!" all in the same time when they notice one (or any special event as a matter of fact); their voice acting is really flat and they don't seem to care when they're on the verge of death.
  If it were up to me i'd redo the voice acting in a much more involved matter and i'd work alot on the line delivery.
  
  
• And speaking of audio, the mixing is really not that great. Using the default audio settings you essentially hear teammates from a mile away while music is blasting into your ears and you can only hear your own gunshots. After a bit of tweaking you can hear game audio a bit better, but you have to pull dialogue all the way down making everyone "whisper". It also needs alot of work, which is a shame because most guns sound quite good and there's alot of nice small effects that play here and there; ambience audio tends to be quite enjoyable too.

All in all i actually had quite alot of fun going through the first episode (which is the longest one i think? it's got 5 maps meanwhile the rest only has 1-3). There's not much downtime and you're constantly doing something or going somewhere (almost to a fault; you don't really have any time to enjoy the scenery) but the game really shines when you reach "the culminating point"
The game right now doesn't need in-depth modding tools or more cosmetics and levels; it needs to work on its foundation to make it a game that's truly worth playing
I don't think "marketing" is what's holding the game back from success, but it's just that there's not really any point to playing the game beyond going through the episodes once and calling it a day

I hope this constructive review (if the devs ever read this) helps in the development of the game because i truly think there's something to be had in this game. Past attempts such as Back 4 Blood have failed time and time again, and this game being lead by one of the creators of the original L4D itself, it could bring something new to this sadly dying genre.

Underrated Rythm/Shooter fusion where you shoot, dodge and move at the pace of your music. Multiplayer is fun with friends but the singleplayer horde mode is especially enjoyable with its scoreboards and score multipliers.

It's still very unpolished (the whole music select UI needs a makeover because it's a hell to navigate through) and needs a ton more work but it's a really innovative concept that holds a ton of untapped potential!

This game fills you with determination!

haven't had this much fun in an fps in a while
10/10 i love u embark