Recent reviews by kFresh

Love love love this game. Played it before Among Us blew up and loved it. Wished it could have had the same meteoric success in a pandemic, but there were a few things impeding any possible widespread, AOC-on-Twitch-levels of adoption.

1) It suffers from a steeper initial learning curve. This can be more punishing for inexperienced survivors AND traitors. Newer basic modes and a MUCH improved tutorial system help a lot with this.

2) Matches are generally 15-25 min. This means if you die at 7 min in and still want to keep playing with the same group you just gotta chill for a while. There is not much to do when you're dead, so I hope you like creeping on your still-living friends.

3) Dexterity is crucial. Being able to move yourself well and fight effectively (even if only against wolves) is vital, but there's not much training for it.

If you're ok feeling pretty shaky in your first round or two, then please play this game. It's a butt ton of fun. It's not going to be Among Us with your family on Zoom, but that's not what it's going for. If you enjoy deep strategy, hidden roles games like Secret Hitler or The Resistance, and feel confident in platformer-level control mechanics, then definitely buy this. Great with friends and randos alike.

At its core, it's great at creating organic opportunities to feel like a productive member of a team.

When I say it like that, it sounds like some corporate team-building exercise, but after some introspection I realize that's the root of the appeal for me. It's the feeling of being able to contribute to something greater than yourself in an authentic and unique way.

On top of that, sticking to purely PvE makes any competition that happens between players (generally) revolve around who can be the most helpful/contribute the most to the good of the team. Did I revive the most teammates? Did I mine the most minerals? Did I kill the most enemies? Even that is all in good fun, and only among dwarves that clearly aren't greenbeards anymore.

The mechanics they use to encourage camaraderie and teamwork are clever and feel natural. As with board games, I love when mechanics follow the theme.

For example, the flares every class has to provide light are effective at illuminating a small area for a short period of time. You have a supply of four of these that slowly regenerate over time as you use them, so it's in your best interest to stick with someone else and share flare time, so no one is caught in the dark alone.

When I was new, everyone was very helpful. Anytime I join in with greenbeards now I try to help build them up and show them the ropes. The dedicated discord server is active and very well integrated into the game. Last night I played a deep dive (like, 3 normal missions back to back) with a dude from Colorado, one from Germany, and one from Indonesia. We were all experienced enough to be able to play well together without a lot of talking about the game, so we got to shoot the ♥♥♥♥ and share how we, in our respective classes, liked best to punk the other classes when we played. We were all dying laughing by the end of it.

It's not lost on me that maybe this is also slaking some thirst for authentic human interaction I've been unable to quench...maybe.

I am a big fan of RTS games, having put in countless hours in things like Starcraft. This game goes at a much slower pace than others I've played, which I have greatly enjoyed. It also has several routes to victory OTHER than just, "destroy your opponent(s)", which greatly appeals to my turtle nature.

Additionally, the devs are AWESOME and are continually adding in free content as well as balance updates. They are active in the forums and respond quickly to any bug reports. I see myself putting in countless more hours in this game.

Yeah, I've got 400+ hours in it. What of it?