Recent reviews by Lhosson

If, like me, you experienced the Command & Conquer games of the mid 1990's, you'll surely remember a golden age of gaming. C&C was one of the best games of that time and had a huge and devoted community behind it. We all just wanted more and more.

There has been a lot of debate about how RTS games have lost their appeal over the last 20 years, and that games such as C&C no longer have a place in mainstream gaming, falling more into the niche category. But it's important to know (or remember) that the only reason RTS games fell out of favour, is because nobody has recaptured the essence of those early games... Until now.

We can blame C&C's fall from grace on Electronic Arts. As usual, they take a fantastic concept, and twist it into something that meets their financial model, then release it as if it's true to its roots. This is why C&C died back in the 2000's. C&C 4 (2010) was an absolute joke and basically flipped the bird at all fans of the original. And with that - C&C drew its last breath and largely faded into history.

There have been attempts to reboot the series, with the likes of C&C Generals, but it just didn't bring back the crowds after the damage that had been done by EA. It was entertaining, but just didn't hit the spot like the original.

Enter: Tempest Rising... It is, without any doubt, the spiritual successor to those original Command and Conquer RTS gems, and has managed to capture the ambience, sound, look and feel - but with a true makeover using the Unreal Engine. It's such a treat to play and I find myself unable to stop grinning while playing going through the campaign. This is, in my opinion (and many others from what the Steam Reviews are saying), a critically successful return to the past.

Cutscenes are done a little differently - using very effective and visually pleasing in-game rendering, instead of the cinematic footage we had with Westwood's version. But it doesn't hamper the experience at all. In fact it even allows us a limited amount of interaction with our higher-ups when being briefed. There's also a bunch of other game mechanics, where you get to unlock and configure additional tech boons for your mission loadout. If you've experienced "Doctrines" in games like Sudden Strike and Company of Heroes, this will be familiar ground. This approach works well with the game, offering a touch of uniqueness to bolster your play style.

Suffice it to say; if you are a fan of the original C&C and dreamed of a return to the original concept delivered by Westwood Studios, before EA chewed them up, then this game is almost certainly what you have been waiting 20+ years for.

An absolute stonking addition to any player's library!

I have no experience with the first version of the game, so I cannot make a comparison. I mention this because it seems to be an issue with many of the reviews complaining about how it's not as good.

With that out of the way, I can review the game based solely on my play-through. I'm 33+ hours into my first attempt, having only recently bought the game for a very reasonable €5.99 (Deluxe Edition) which was crazy cheap considering the normal price.

At first, it plays a little slowly and forces the player to design things specifically for the tutorial, but that doesn't last long and you can jump in without it if you want. Although I wouldn't recommend that if you are unfamiliar with the game. After which the game drip-feeds you with side quests and a main campaign mission, both of which are significantly long and fairly enjoyable. It's not overly complicated (think Dungeon Keeper - but with a lot more stuff to build and research).

As a novice, it will likely take considerable time to complete all the side missions and main campaign (if you have all the DLC that comes with the Digital Deluxe version). There are several main Villains you can choose from, and even more unplayable villains and heroes to go up against as you try to dominate the globe. It's pretty tongue-in-cheek and a lot of fun.

Visually the graphics are adorably entertaining, with bright colours, beautifully animated minions and NPC's, nicely detailed room parts and overall a smooth frame-rate (at least for my setup using a 3080Ti). I've not had any crashes and the only bug I have experienced so far was during one of the main campaign missions, which eventually sorted itself out (it wasn't updating).

The sound is also really good, with some of the best in-game music - fitting perfectly into the genre of Super Villain. It sounds like a Bond movie. My only complaint would be the overly intrusive humming of Power Stations when near to them. It's quite loud and gets a little raw after a while. On the plus side, you can unlock multi-level building fairly quickly if you choose the right path, which allows you to build them on a floor that you don't frequent. Aside from that, it's a very good audio experience.

As far as end-game goes, I'm not able to comment. But I am having a blast and will definitely be completing my dastardly plans of world domination. It's super-fun.

Price-wise. I'm not sure I would have bought this for the full price (in fact I know I wouldn't), and they should probably reduce it now that the game is getting a bit old. €59.99 is a steep price for what is basically a chilled base management game. So, if you're not in a hurry - drop it on your wishlist and pick it up in a sale. It's definitely worth playing, and for €5.99 it's a no-brainer.

So yeah, I'm recommending this. So much so that I bought my wife a copy; which she also can't stop playing.

A great, feature packed, game for sure!

So, the game that forced me to begrudgingly create an account on Steam in order to play it, revisits me more than 20 years later in all its Ray Traced glory and has me tripping over myself to install it.

Well played Half Life... Well played.

If you enjoyed the first game, this does improve on a few things. It also carries a lot over to keep things familiar.

If, however, you don't like stressful oxygen demands (30-90 second intervals, depending on upgrades) and fairly constant food management (nobody eats this much) - you might not enjoy this so much. That said, it's a free demo so do yourself a good turn and at least give it a go!

I found it fun.

I want to like this game. It has the potential to be something quite unique. The ability to put yourself in the shoes of a first responder and see some of the things they deal with, is not just intriguing, but I'm sure it's teaching us something important that could come in handy in real life.

But the execution of the simulation is really hit-and-miss. We have moments of Unreal's Matrix demo, mixed with some pretty atmospheric city environmental elements, but it's accompanied by heavily noticeable bugs and glitches.

Menu options are awkward, but i am sure they can be mastered over time. Unfortunately the training missions and mission scripts seem to play havoc with them, often glitching out and leaving the player unable to complete simple selections essential to diagnosis.

There's also plenty of bugs when dealing with some patients. I had my gurney levitate while collecting a patient that was bleeding out, because her friend was near by. We were hovering in the air with legs running at what seemed like 100mph. It looked funny, but wasn't really, as the mission checkpoint had to be reset (for the 3rd time on that quest, due to bugs).

I think this could be something fantastic, although in its current state I cannot recommend it, knowing that the stability and presentation is far below par. I've seen better Early Access games than this. And that's a concern, because it shows the developers/publisher were willing to release this as complete, even in this state. That usually doesn't bare well for future support.

I will be refunding this and will see if the dev's have worked on refining it over time. When I hear enough positivity about the stability and playability of the sim, I will most likely come back to it.

For now, however; I would give it a miss and keep an eye on it. Unless you really want to support the developers and are prepared to invest in a broken game.

A spooky but intriguing driving game. The narrative is good, the atmosphere is fantastic, the car physics is fun and the overall uniqueness of this game make it a worth addition to any library.

If you liked Stranded Deep, then this has the potential to scratch that itch. It's extremely similar, but admittedly has a bit more under the bonnet when it comes to survival mechanics. I'd say it leans towards Green Hell with the inventory and crafting system.

It also looks very nice. The water is well done, which is important for a game that is primarily focused around travelling and exploring around an archipelago of loot (and risk) infested islands. The physics are also not terrible.

But as many others have mentioned, this current iteration of the game is so early development that it feels more like an Alpha test on the concept and technologies that the dev's want to integrate, than a stable, playable slice of what the game will become. The 1st version release of Subnautica was like this. Very buggy, lacking lots of essential gameplay parts and also feeling somewhat directionless. Luckily Unknown Worlds managed to make an absolute gem out of Subnautica. I just hope the same will be said of this game after it's had some time to bake in the oven.

Right now though, I'd say only invest in purchasing if you really want to help finance the potential it could have once it gets some meat on it. Because at the time of this review, it's a buggy mess. Teleporting into the deep ocean when using crafting chests, item duplication when picking up a tool you drop, spawning on hostile creatures that you have no defence against when beginning a game, food rotting too quickly... the list goes on.

I'm going to recommend it in so far as it would be nice if the dev's continue work on it and release a fleshed out, stable game. but I don not recommend it for anyone wanting to play a survival sim in its current state. It's just a tech showcase with a shell of a concept at the moment. Way, way early access. It could easily turn out to be a dud.

I wish Mardonpol Inc luck with this endeavour.

Buyer forewarned.

I quite enjoyed the game when it was initially launched; having tried the BETA version just beforehand. I managed to get a decent way into the game, with around 55hrs invested in my character. Quite a time-sink. There's a fairly decent combat system and the player house crafting is not too shabby, allowing for some creativity - for the most part.

But where it all fell apart (for me) was when this odd Season Change came into play. It wouldn't allow me to continue where I was previously (I guess that's ok, being it's part of the design), but it also was contrived in what I was supposed to do next. I spent a fair bit of time figuring out what I was meant to do, selecting the next season and applying for it (weirdly bizarre) and ultimately had to wait until the season launched, which was a few days later.

I was too busy to get on again for a couple of weeks, but when I returned I once again faced the same awkward New Season confusion. I could go to Eternaland, but not continue with my character on the new season for whatever contrived reason, then fumbled my way into a server list that was apparently "low" in player count, only to be told it was no longer available because it was overpopulated... A few different attempts with calls for "special invitation codes" and other oddities, and I was pretty much put off the entire thing.A mind-boggling system.

Finally I found a server that was available, but now it wanted me to start a new character from the ground up (character creation etc). At this stage I was so confused by the entire debacle that I exited and considered my options. A few minutes later I chose to uninstall the game and free up a decent 75GB of SSD space.

I enjoyed it for a while and even supported the dev's with some shop purchases to pay my part. But the whole system is contrived and awkward, especially when I want to just get on a game but have to spend 40 minutes simply trying to figure out why I can't play at the moment. Sadly, the game's just not good enough to be worth the effort.

Well done with the account linking reversal, Sony. Even though it should never have been a thing in the first place.

Now let's hope the reviews for this incredible game will recover and give an accurate reflection of the awesomeness that is Helldivers 2, and enable Arrowhead to flourish again, instead of diminishing due to the incompetence of suits behind the scenes.

Oh - and my review... A gem of a game. Undeniably fun!

I bought this in 2016 and was keen to see where it would go.

It's 2024 and I'm amazed at just how little has been done and how boring and grindy the game is.

It sells itself as a hardcore survival game, but it's only hardcore in so much as you need masses of time to achieve very little. It's uninspiring, tedious and isn't aging well at all. There's a small, and fiercely protective, fan-base that don't want to hear any negative opinions about Subsistence, which doesn't help to create a particularly welcoming community, or constructive feedback for the developer for that matter (who apparently doesn't communicate with the EA investors either).

There's plenty more survival games out there to have way more fun with; But if gathering hundreds of fiber pieces from hundreds of bushes, just to make a piece of twine, or fuel block, seems like fun to you - this game has you covered. Want to learn how to make an hatchet to be able to collect wood? Nah, just make one from metal parts you find in random mini-loot boxes that are littered all over the place. It's far more realistic. Want to know how to make a bow and some arrows to protect yourself or, more importantly, hunt for game? Nah, we'll give you a gun to start with. It's far more realistic.

A true survival experience, for anyone that has no clue what real survival would require, brought to you by ACME Bush and Shrubberies Inc. because you can never have too much undergrowth.