Recent reviews by Lami ☃

Gameplay is fantastic, and once you get past the rather mediocre campaign you are met with an endgame that might as well be crack cocaine.

Workshop maps gone, achievements gone, gun game gone, game I used to love gone. Valve have deleted CSGO and replaced it with this, might be a perfectly good game, don't care. This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ should be straight up illegal, I called it out when Destiny 2 did it, now multiple other companies are doing the same, deleting paid content should always be illegal, period.

Looks like next time I feel like playing CS, I'll be playing CS:Source, ♥♥♥♥ you Valve.

Strong similarity to Battlefield 3 and 4, with destruction that Battlefield Bad Company 2 tried to achieve a long time ago.
If you like any of those games, chances are high you'll love this one.
In almost 30 hours of play I have experienced lag once, on one server, for about 2 minutes, and it wasn't even affecting gunplay, just an interactable I couldn't interact with.
BattleBit pulls all of the best, and worst elements of those Battlefield games into a smooth, satisfying experience across multiple gamemodes and server sizes (127v127/64v64/32v32).

The best elements:
Gunplay is phenomenal, sounds are fantastic, TTK is perfect and very Battlefield 3/4.
Maps are mostly top tier, one or two that have some questionable elements.
Near fully destructible buildings, including some of the huge ones. This means every round will play out slightly differently as cover is slowly removed as a round goes on, new pathways emerge from the rubble, etc. I once brought down a building with a tank because it was in my way, just drove straight through it and it came down behind me.

The bad elements:
As with most competitive games, the community is pretty awful, although better than the esports games. (LoL, DOTA, CSGO, etc.)
People seem a little too happy calling other players "campers", the concept is absurd. Often holding a point or a doorway is the best way to ensure victory, this isn't "camping", it's simply playing smart. There are many ways to deal with this, grenades/flashbangs at close to mid range, smoke at long range, or hell just blow up the building with rpgs so they have no cover, bonus points if it comes down on their heads.
Also, if someone tries to call you out for playing a sniper, block them and move on. Play however you damn well like, it's a casual shooter. Have fun.
Standard semi-casual shooter fare, you will frequently find enemies have found a way to your flank and shot you in the back or back capped a point and spawned an army behind you. Honestly this is just a pet peeve of all games with respawns, the only true fix is a one-life mode but this isn't a hardcore game.
This one will be polarising, the lack of HP regen is clearly a design decision made to push the game more toward team play, however I have never seen a squad properly working as a team and none of the other systems give a reason to. Locking HP regen behind a specific role doesn't really work as the game stands now. If I win a fight and there's no enemies around, but also no medics, I am almost certainly going to lose the next fight I get into because I'm already low on HP. So I either have to run around the map shouting for a medic, not fun, or just go fight someone, probably die, and just respawn on full HP, which is probably faster than finding a medic, especially one that's paying attention. Maybe the Milsim mode will improve this problem, if anyone plays it.
Last on the negative list is cheating, I have no idea how prevalent it is but it has made me quit games entirely before, as a competitive shooter it will have cheaters, I believe I've seen more than a few of them myself but can never be certain. You can click someone's name in the scoreboard and see all player reports made against that person so that may give some indication.

TLDR: Fun semi-casual shooter in the style of Battlefield 3 and 4 with very low TTK, vehicles, large maps, destructible buildings. Play the way you want and have fun. Some mechanics lean toward the hardcore crowd (no natural HP regen), while others lean strongly toward casual play (back capping points and fast respawns).

Graphics don't matter, gameplay is king.

Didn't have a review for this yet so here it is

$10 for easily 50-100 hrs for only a single playthrough on low difficulty.
I have done a full playthrough on Master, a full playthrough on Calamity Mod, another full playthrough on Calamity with Fargos and Star's Above, and a half playthrough on Thorium.
The only other game that's seen this much value IMO is Minecraft, again thanks to mods.

To talk about the actual game briefly:

Terraria is a 2D survival game with a major focus on boss progression, think Valheim but with far less grinding. Compared to Valheim, Terraria has a LOT more bosses, and personally I think those bosses are better designed. When you include mods in the pool for how many bosses Terraria can have, the number is absurd. Terraria gets off to a fairly slow start akin to the progression up to full diamond in Minecraft, but once you start knocking down bosses the game picks up the pace.
There are three main difficulty levels (Normal, Expert, Master), they come with a small selection of unique boss loot. There's also a super easy almost cheating mode for those less inclined toward the progression elements called Journey mode, that allows you to spawn in items as you wish once you've collected a certain number yourself.
If you find an element in the game that you dislike, for example I dislike micromanaging town NPCs to make teleport pylons work, there's likely a mod that solves the issue. For example, I installed a mod that removes all pylon restrictions, lets you place them anywhere, and teleport to them from anywhere, as long as you aren't actively fighting a boss. Does that make the game easier? Yes. Was the game more fun? Also yes.

Terraria is a classic, fun, no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game that will let you ignore the world for hundreds of hours.

Played during free weekend, decided not to buy.
This is a sad one, the game is very fun, high skill ceiling although can be tough to break through the skill floor.
I don't want to talk about gameplay though, because it's damn near perfect.

What I want to discuss is price.
This game costs $20, and then has a store, battle pass, and lootboxes.
Look at almost every game in this "style" (Online competitive shooters) and you find that the vast majority are free to play with all of these micro transactions as a way to continue funding the game.
In my opinion, you don't get to have it both ways. If you charge up front, you don't get micro transactions to this degree. I could have been okay with a small cosmetics store with no battle pass, or a free battle pass like Deep Rock Galactic.
They went full greed and that's why this review is negative.
You can't sustain the servers on up front cost, that's fine. If the game continues on the path it's on in terms of gameplay, it could see massive long term support, but you lose a lot of people with the entry fee, which you aren't gaining much from anyway, if you were you wouldn't have crammed all the micro transactions in.

I will not support scummy developers who want every single dollar, at the cost of the long term health of their game.

----------------NEW REVIEW----------------

I gave them the benefit of the doubt when they released P2W boosts to leveling, gathering, and weaponskill leveling. I will not be giving them that same benefit when they decide to release a paid expansion to a primarily PvP game with straight P2W for players who buy it. Raising the level cap to 65 and gear score to 700, direct power gains for players with the expansion. Mounts, only available to players with the expansion, if you don't have them you won't be able to chase or escape effectively in open world PvP.

These changes mean you will not be able to compete in PvP after the expansion releases. PvP is the primary endgame for New World. Amazon are saying that if you don't give them more money, you will now be unable to PvP. You will no longer be able to assist your guild with zone defense, or wars, unless you buy the expansion. This is equivalent to removing content from the game.

For those of you saying that other MMOs do this, they don't. WoW has level brackets for all structured PvP modes, and the open world PvP has no rewards. GW2 has normalised PvP. FF14 has normalised PvP. Even the scam game Destiny 2 has semi-normalised PvP.

The only pro-consumer way to release this expansion would be to make the level cap equal for all players, and prevent mounts being used while PvP flagged. Original owners of this game, myself included, are losing access to the primary endgame while the game is still running, stop accepting this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

----------------OLD REVIEW-----------------

Exactly as expected, working perfectly.

The people saying Amazon have cheaped out on servers have no idea how servers work, you can't just throw more servers at the problem, at some point you reach the best performing servers in the world and you can't go faster, same as a standard PC. New World never promised server meshing in any form.

The people complaining about long queues can either switch servers or sit down and deal with it. EVERY SINGLE MMO launches with queues, this happens to be a very popular MMO, and some of the queues are massive. The accusation that Amazon has only put in queues to stop refunds is absurd, and the only reason people are making that accusation is this the most popular MMO released on Steam in the last 10 years or so, which happens to have that refund policy. Most other large MMOs avoid Steam because the cost of developing a launcher and marketing is low compared to the overall budget of an MMO.

In regards to whether you'll enjoy the game:

I compare New World to traditional theme park MMOs, with an emphasis on PVP and faction wars/politics. Levelling takes a long time. Personal/Social Reputation matters. Being in a strong, large guild is crucial if you want to participate in endgame PVP content.
The combat is unique among MMOs, and will be polarising, I find it very fluid and fun, but some people will disagree, the most comparable combat system is from Dark Souls, although there are some differences.
Levels matter, and gear matters even more. In an evenly skilled/geared fight the victor will be the one who can counter the other player's build. Builds have very strong variety and will swing wildly depending on your choice of situation, some builds shine in open world small scale pvp, some are only useful in duels, and others are only useful in large scale pvp and wars. There are even build options for players with excellent aim, mostly using the musket or bow, both of which do potentially massive bonus damage for headshots.
Gearing while levelling is comparable to Destiny 2, you will find better gear as your level increases, and you can further push that number by equipping gear with higher gearscore. At endgame this is only partially viable, as the best gear is obtained through crafting professions.
The crafting and gathering systems in New World are most comparable to Old School Runescape, you level them up separately to your combat skills, they can provide valuable items for levelling, while also providing a potential wealth in sales of high quality gear.

If you enjoyed Classic WoW, or OSRS, and are looking for a PVP focused MMO with Dark Souls like combat, then this may well be what you're looking for.

After looking at a sizable number of negative reviews, I almost didn't buy this game. I bought it alongside a friend today, and we played it for 8 hours straight. Easily the most fun I've had in any game for years.

Tribes leans more heavily into Roguelike than Roguelite, the overarching progression is essentially non-existent besides a few starter kits you unlock through challenges, that allow you to spawn with a few basic things, helping to give you the start you want. There is no power gain in this system, one of the strongest kits is unlocked within a run or two, and the choices are largely personal preference from there.
This means the game is focused very heavily on knowledge, a true Roguelike quality.

At the start of each run you spawn with your starter kit and are thrown straight in, you need to figure out the best course of action to defend the town, and the Seed. If the Seed dies, it's game over. The Seed stays alive through consuming souls, which will be consumed slowly over time, and any time the Seed takes damage. You will be exploring the map as fast as you dare, trying to find specific resources in key areas, taking on enemy camps to acquire extra souls and loot, but with the ever present threat of another nightly attack. Semi frequent fast travel "shrines" will help you to expand your influence across the map, while still allowing a speedy getaway should you need to defend the town.

Resources will be turned into the various tools, weapons, armors, potions, and buildings, that you will need to succeed, most of these things have tiers which can be progressed through within a run, and get progressively stronger. You will choose a class the first time you level up within a run, this will be locked for the entire run, and will likely decide the weapon type you will use that run. The classes (8 in total, 2 unlocked at the start) each have a unique skill tree that will buff various aspects of your player character.

Big warning though, this game is also one of the hardest games I've played in years. After 8 hours, our best run as a duo was 10 days, with very strong coordination and timings.

TLDR - Hard as hell, close to true Roguelike, heavy knowledge focus, few near-gamebreaking bugs which were quite frustrating, VERY fun but VERY intense.

Strongly recommend

Insanely fun and hectic roguelite, mix between Risk of Rain 2 and 7 Days to Die. First person survival where you are attacked by monsters every single night, you must quickly collect resources to build tools and weapons, that allow you to harvest stronger resources, that allow you to make stronger tools and weapons. You get gold from killing enemies and turning gold ore into coins, you spend gold to open randomised loot chests which function exactly the same as Risk of Rain 2's loot chests, providing a different rarity of item based on the type of chest, with increasing price for the better chests. There is only one stage, and seemingly infinite days, the challenge is surviving as long as possible just like 7 Days to Die. Building is basically just a way to distract enemies as they seem to target the closest hostile object or player, and should not be used to build elaborate bases, as that wastes your very precious and limited time. There is no overarching progression system at the time of this review, if you die you restart from scratch.

This review is based on 2 solo runs, with the second run reaching Day 13. I may edit this review if I get a chance to play with friends. (I didn't know there was a map, and got lost in both runs.) (I do not follow the creator that made this game, and thus don't subscribe to the meme, it is genuinely a really fun game.)

I struggled to seriously get into ARK as I don't like PVP setting me back dozens of hours worth of progress. I loved Conan Exiles but found a few annoying bugs, alongside the game being tuned for a small group of players, with the community being tiny I usually played solo.

Valheim fixes ALL of my problems with those games.

Difficulty and PVP (9/10):
Valheim scales mob difficulty based on player count, you have to toggle on PVP, and it can be played entirely solo with effort and skill. The grind in Valheim is minimal (think Minecraft), you chop some trees, you kill some mobs, you progress, you run a couple dungeons, you die a few times and learn from it, you progress.
Almost every item I have seen is useful in some way or another, in most of these games upgrades and potions are optional, but after fighting the third boss, let me tell you, YOU NEED THEM.
I have been playing in 2 player coop primarily but also played the first few hours solo, I think the best experience will come from 2-4 players, but the game is perfectly enjoyable solo. Once you go over 4 players, I would be concerned the difficulty may not scale high enough, and certain parts of the game may become trivial.

Details and Water Travel (10/10):
Every system in this game feels crafted to a level of detail that makes most AAA games cry, boats/rafts have a detailed paddle/sail system with changing winds that drag the boat/raft slightly if the wind is going to the side, if sailing into wind you have to use the paddle or you move nowhere. That is solely just a means of travelling across water and shipping resources across water.
When setting up a fire indoors you need to ensure the smoke leaves the building or you will start to suffocate from the smoke. I set up a chimney on our house with an internal funnel for the smoke, this is working well.

Building (10/10):
Oh my where to begin, Valheim has one of the most authentic building systems I have ever seen, not quite realistic but very close. Buildings need structural support or they will collapse, this allows for very authentic looking structures that are player made.
You can attach building pieces together by snapping them together like other games, or simply build freeform and connect pieces naturally, which seems to work flawlessly.
Best building system I have ever experienced.

Exploration and Discovery (9/10):
The game has a fantastic sense of exploration and discovery, we have only looked things up when we get stuck, and discovering new resources and creatures has been a very interesting experience as each new resource unlocks new recipes and tools, each new creature has me going, "What the hell is that and how is it going to kill me?", but also, "I wonder what new stuff we get for killing that".

Variety (9/10):
Each new biome has a unique set of creatures to fight or farm, sometimes with unique attacks or mechanics.
Each creature type is vulnerable or resistant to certain types of attack (Pierce, Slash, Blunt, Fire, Poison, Etc.) meaning you potentially have to switch up your playstyle on the fly and use different weapons as your main weapon may be ineffective against certain enemy types.

Negatives and Bugs:
Difficulty - Valheim is easy to begin, but rapidly ramps up the difficulty and becomes very satisfying to progress, however if you are looking for a "chill" experience, you may wish to look elsewhere, as this game gets very tough, the third boss is the first boss we have struggled with, and it's mechanics were not easily countered.
Grave bug - We have encountered a couple of bugs, but the most annoying causes player graves to not be interactable until that player relogs to the server, if the host gets this bug, then from my experience they will need to load a backup to recover the items. We have experienced that particular bug twice in 30 hours.
Combat cheesing - Combat against melee mobs can be cheesed quite easily, as simply holding a shield up and walking backwards means 9 times out of 10 the mobs will swing too slowly to hit you, then will be unable to attack again for a short time, giving you a window of attack, this doesn't work on large creatures which take more skill to kite.

Overall rating: (9.5/10)

Perfection.