Recent reviews by Moth

So this DLC is amazing in terms of gameplay. It's normal Ghostrunner but you have more mobility, there's a new mechanic called rage which rewards you for playing well, there's some fun new enemy types and it makes you feel like even more of a badass than the base game did. It's a direct upgrade and it's amazing.

Buttttt
It's very short. It took me about 2.5 hours to beat, there's no hardcore levels either so that's it, that's the DLC, just 7 pretty short levels. The boss fights also aren't anything special.

TL;DR the gameplay is great but the length makes it not worth the full price, get it on sale.

10/10 buy the game

Best DLC ever apart from maybe doom eternal the ancient gods.

TL;DR, if you liked hacknet, buy this game immediately, play through all of it.

If that hasn't sold you, I'll go more in depth now, minor spoilers ahead, nothing serious

- Gameplay
It's the same as hacknets, the hacking has been made more complex, there are more cool ideas, the final few servers you have to get into require a lot of thinking and a lot of steps, overall just a more in depth version of hacknet.

- Story / Atmosphere
The original hacknet didn't really have much of a story, labyrinths has a bit more of a fleshed out story, and there are two especially cool moments, the ending and another event that happens midway through the DLC depending on your choices.
I can't really talk in detail about the ending.
But the ending is the best ending in any game ever as of june 2022. The buildup to it, the music, the time pressure, everything. There's also some really cool lore that you can find afterwards.
Despite that I think the ending could have been better. the gameplay could have been improved, it's just your standard hacking. depending on what you chose I would have loved it if coel or default + kaguya did something to try and stop you, it would've been the cherry on top of an already flawless ending.

- Music
Remi Gallego is still making brilliant scores, the music for the ending is the most thematically fitting piece for any ending, I could make an entire 60 minute video essay on why it fits so brilliantly.

Overall it's an improved hacknet, if you didn't like hacknet you probably won't like this, but if you liked hacknet, please buy this, it's amazing.

TL;DR, absolutely brilliant, if you like exploration and discovery games like subnautica, play this
The narrative is amazing, though the character interactions aren't so good
The gameplay is brilliant, super unique, and there are some insanely cool concepts in there
Play the game.

If that hasn't sold you, time to go more in depth, minor spoilers but nothing serious.

- Gameplay
The movement works, controlling your ship is fun, holding down space to jump is a bit weird but you get used to it.
The real gameplay is the puzzle solving, this game is kind of like a massive mystery game in space, with exploration elements as well.
Figuring out what's happening is one of the coolest experiences I've had in any game, ever.
Essentially you explore, find clues, explore those clues more in depth. It's a cross between the exploration in subnautica and a detective game. If that interests you then you should definitely buy this game.

- Story / Atmosphere
The story is the highlight of this game, and it's absolutely stellar. The story is told through the exploration / mystery solving I mentioned earlier, and there are some awesome concepts that really make the space nerd part of me happy. Overall, the story is one of the best I've seen in any games.

- Music
There isn't music for most of the game, but there are some cool scores, and the music during the ending sequence is really awesome too.

I didn't pirate this game but I basically did, got it at £6.24 on sale which is such a steal.
Anyway minor gameplay and story spoilers but nothing that big

TL;DR, this game is the best immersive sim ever, there's a ridiculous amount of gameplay options, the devs programmed for a ton of possiblities for each choice, obviously because of the genre you can kill basically any NPC you come across, which is always cool.

Let's start with the positives:

- Gameplay
There's always a bunch of different options for any part of the game, with all the different abilities and tools you have it's nice that you can actually use all of them. The exploration is the best part of the game, TALOS 1 may not be big but it's incredibly detailed and there's always more things to find on repeat playthroughs
Movement is fun, especially with the upgrades and powers you get
The powers are awesome, if an alien can do it you probably can too at some point, they also have some really interesting uses outside of combat
The combat is good, it's not the best but once again you always get a bunch of options, there's some very unique guns, and the grenades aren't just your standard explosives either, they've all got unique twists
There's not too much in terms of enemy variety, but most of the enemies are good, mimics are the most common, and the most fun to deal with, but it can feel awesome to kill some of the bigger enemies. Cystoids can go ♥♥♥♥ themselves though

- Story / Atmosphere
The main story is really amazing at the start, and really amazing at the end, but kinda meh inbetween, it's really short and there's not too much nuance to the main plot
There's ending is quite controversial, some people don't like it, I won't spoil it but I think the ending is amazing
It's the side missions and extra dialogue that really make this game excel with the story though, there's some amazing bits of lore in the missions, and there's a billion audio logs for you to find throughout the game, and some of the side missions are really tragic
Once again the devs have managed to account for basically every possiblity, you can kill your guide at the start if you really want and they still manage to have the game play properly and not softlock
The atmosphere is the best part, it's complemented so well by the looks and the music, and some of the more interesting areas in the game are pretty unsettling too

-Music
Mick Gordon, same guy who did DOOM, of course it's amazing

-World Design
The environments are incredibly detailed, there's living quarters, kitchen, everything feels like it has a purpose and makes sense to use aboard a space station
Little things change based on your decisions in the world, or even before you start the game, the toilet seat in your apartment changes positions based on what gender you choose, and there's a bunch of other details like that around the game
It somehow still manages to be fun to explore though, there's a lot of verticality in the station, and the interior for the most part matches the exterior, which is a really cool detail
Fast travel is done really well, there's no lighting bonfires or climbing towers just to teleport, there's actual, logical connections between places, and shortcuts that make sense in the context, going around outside the station to get from airlock to airlock, using a lift inbetween the 3 levels, that sort of thing. It's not instant, sure, but it's still really quick and makes the world feel a lot more real

Negative time:

The tutorials kinda suck
It's always best to have an immersive tutorial, like portal, the game sometimes does it, the rest of the time it's just as bad as DOOM Eternal with the popups
At the start the game has a cool sequence which is important story wise, and teaches you the basic mechanics, which is great design for a tutorial
but then the popups start
There are a few other places where the game has good tutorials, like with the gloo gun there's a cool sequence showing off one of it's abilities

The main plot kind of sucks most of the time, but once again that's made up for with all the side missions and extra lore you can find

Combat in zero gravity is, really, really awful, which is a shame since the rest of zero gravity is awesome

Conclusion:
Buy the game if you're interested at all in immersive sims, buy the game if it's on sale, in general buy the game, you can always refund it in the first two hours

TL;DR, amazing game, buy it, it goes on sale frequently for insanely cheap, has amazing soundtrack, DLC is also awesome and even better than the base game, buy it too if you like the base game.

TL;DR, probably it if you like roguelikes, and maybe get it if it's on sale otherwise.

The first few hours of this game were fun, the artstyle is amazing, and so is the soundtrack, story is decent too. Where it falls apart is it's repetitive gameplay. I've beaten this game twice now, once normally and once without getting any of the permanent upgrades, and the combat is basically just spamming attack with some occasional special kind of attacks and spells. The enemies are incredibly spongey, and take ages to kill unless you get lucky with combat upgrades during your run. The bosses are OK, attacks are well telegraphed, but they still suffer from the fact that you're just clicking on them, constantly, for what feels like years. Compare this to something like Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac where the enemies can at least be killed in a reasonable time, and you have to actually aim your attacks rather than spam clicking like it's minecraft pvp. In terms of difficulty I'd recommend playing on hell mode, the game itself is pretty easy, and if you want the combat to be interesting at all you'll need to play on the higher difficulty. The enemy variety is pretty lackluster too, they all feel pretty similar to fight.

In conclusion, it's OK for the first like 5-6 hours, but it just doesn't justify a £20 price tag, or even a £13 price tag which is what I got it on sale for. Hollow knight and Celeste can both be bought for under half the price of this game when on sale, and you'll get a much better experience playing them. And compared to other rougelikes it's nowhere near as good as Enter the Gungeon or Binding of Isaac.

I have crippling finger pain

me shoot thing thing go boom

Good game, buy it.