Recent reviews by A Popular Dog

Yikes, AI slop? Really guys?

2 years without an update and wall after wall of text detailing absolutely nothing, and all you've added is AI generated garbage to a world that was rich with atmosphere?

The slow development (and boy, these guys really define that term) I can forgive. Shoehorning in this garbage after all this time with nothing tangible, I cannot.

I don't regret buying this game a full decade ago, I knew it would never be finished, but man. Hard pass on recommending it to anyone I know.

Runs at solid 60+ at 1440p with a 12700k and a 3080. Occasional dips in the big city but nothing crazy and only lasts a few seconds. Heed the other review that mentions framerate lock: if you can't reach the target, the game will run in slowmo. Don't set it to 120 unless you can actually consistently get 120, and if not, 60 is fine. Not optimized by any stretch of the word, but not nearly as bad as people are making it out to be. Try not playing it on a Samsung fridge and you'll probably have a good time.

Combat is solid, absolutely huge amount of skill progression options. Similar to Nioh in many ways, but different enough that it doesn't feel like the same game. Mix in a little Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro with a sprinkle of Tenchu and you've got a pretty good samurai slasher. Also there's flamethrowers and a handheld sonar and a glider for some reason? Not complaining, it's fun, but why does every game have to have a glider now?

Also, Koei, please put out a demo. I had to try the game through other methods to find out if it was worth buying due to the reviews, and I'm glad it was, but it would have been a lot easier if there was just a demo. Bring back demos!

Oops! All Krafton!

This company destroys everything they touch. Dev sold out to an awful scumbag company that poisons everything and only wants to steal from you and use you. Never recommend Krafton, no matter how much they're involved.

Sorry James, but that was a bad move.

After 16 hours in the demo, the main version is far, far different, even in just the first zone. A lot of loot feels completely useless. Most of the gun-changing oils are just a bad choice and are nothing but vendor trash or noob traps.

I'm conflicted. The gunplay is tight and feels fantastic, but the die-and-lose-everything mechanic conflicts with itself a lot as the game STRONGLY urges you to grind Caves (the first zone) over and over until you get good guns and level them up to the point where they'll be viable in Town or Sewers. Then, if you die, it's all gone, and you have to do hours of work leveling up your guns again. It does add some real danger and true consequence to dying, but it feels like it goes too far, even if you do get some of your worth back at the church's mailbox.

There definitely needs to be a major balance pass on most of the oils, which again, are largely not worth using. Every single item you put on your weapon increases its durability use per shot. 5 oils/enchantments + 3 attachments = 8 durability use per shot, which is where my main gripe comes in. Caves, run slowly, takes 10-30 minutes to clear depending on searching for mushrooms to craft food, looking for loot, etc. Town and Sewers seem to run into more and more levels without giving you a "checkpoint" like Caves does. You either finish the entire run, you leave early and don't progress, or you die. I went through the Sewer ended up using 5 repair kits on a very, very powerful rifle and showed up at the boss door 3 full levels later with a nearly dead gun, hardly any food, and an inventory full of loot ingredients that don't go together. I just summoned my amulet and left, leaving the progression state of my game exactly the same as when I went in.

Money is not an issue; most runs end in me making anywhere from 6-12k. Ammo is not an issue; lots of it drops and if you collect and sell intelligently, you can easily buy out every trader you come across. I barely ever find decent armor, shoes are pretty common but most of them kind of suck or are extremely situational with their buffs. I'm sitting at over 50k gold and a stash half full of guns and bombs, but I feel absolutely exhausted after attempting Sewers. The performance issues don't help.

I'd say it's worth a buy as it's relatively cheap, but it definitely has some pretty strong balance issues and seems to be having an identity crisis with the lose-all-your-stuff mechanic on top of the grinding.

First factory game I've played. Always been daunted by Factorio and have been waiting for Satisfactory to hit 1.0 before I jump in, but this game is incredible. Extremely polished, banging soundtrack, tons of things to mess with and learn, and all with lots of difficulty options to give new players a no-stress environment to learn in. Nearly 40 hours in and I can tell I've got a long way to go. Came back for the supporter edition because this is the kind of quality we should be supporting.

I had already basically stopped playing this because of the incredible, life-draining amount of hours grinding and doing menial tasks it takes to make meaningful progress. Most of my hours logged were spent idle with the game minimized trying to progress a meaningless skill. The game is crafted in a way that absolutely disrespects every players' time, and is engineered to get you to spend money in their abusive, predatory cash shop with Korean classics such as "can only buy currency in packs exceeding what you need" and "time-limited discounts".

I was pretty put off when they recently released their new absolutely shameless, over-the-top-gooner-bait outfit for the Nova. All of the female character outfits so far have been pretty sexualized, but this one is just screaming that they have no taste left whatsoever.

What really tipped me over the edge, and the reason for the negative despite all the stockholm I have built up over the full time employment hours required to get anywhere in this game, is that they've finally released something the entire community has been wanting for years. Something that every other MMO came with on its first day. Something that you would expect to see in an MMO.

We finally got dance emotes.

Except... they're cash-shop only. No biggie, right? Well, not only are they $10 a piece, but are also character bound. So not only can you not use them on any other characters, you'll have to spend more than the price of a full-featured flagship title to get them all. Oh, and they're "limited time", so they're also abusing FOMO to psychologically manipulate their players into spending money on something that should have been implemented for everyone years ago. I wouldn't mind paying for them if they, say, came in a pack, and were family-bound (unlocked for the entire account), but this is the last greedy straw and I can't justify defending their practices anymore.

Did I mention they also removed the RGB color selector for people that don't have an active "Value Pack" running? The thing that you could poke around with any time you wanted, regardless of whether you could actually apply the colors to your armor for free?

People say PA is better than Kakao, but I'm not seeing it. It's still the same greedy schmucks running the show and implementing manipulative marketing tactics to their players that they very clearly don't care about past their wallets.

The game could be incredible, but they are intent on making decisions that only phlebotomize their playerbase rather than implement changes that would positively impact the game and would keep them playing and attract more players.

Different every session, hilarious item interactions, insane late-game, tons of replayability, and all with a healthy modding scene. It's like Noita if it didn't hate me.

This game never had a chance from day one. The coffin is beyond its last nail and has been buried.

Just find a copy of the first one.

Major Order Complete

Runs fantastic on Steam Deck. Looks great with MGSHDFix. Way better than the GOG version.