Recent reviews by sheep

Simple No until any kind of ultrawide support is added... I could have settled for 3440x1440, but not even that? Please add support for people with 3440x1440 and 5120x1440. I want to experience this game in all it's glory, not with half my screen blacked out. If Lords of the Fallen can do it, so can you!

*I saw that it's targeted by the devs to be added in S1 update in sept. so I'll adjust review accordingly afterwards.

**S1 update review after ultrawide support was added :
I'm finally playing the game now that it supports 21:9, and it's running great! Playing on Angel of Death to start, and the challenge is definitely there, the struggle is real in some missions when playing solo. I imagine if I was playing with some friends they would be quite a bit easier, but ya, definitely enjoying the game a lot. Will update the review as I get deeper into the game, so far I'm just a couple hours in, but wanted to get rid of my initial negative review after the ultrawide support was added. Thanks Devs!

While the story is underwhelming to put it mildly, the rest of the game shines, especially for a F2P. The Third Person Shooting combat feels excellent - the guns have good variance and some of them have a good amount of recoil which is always nice as it brings more skill into play. The sound of the shooting is awesome, super crunchy headshots, and I love the sound of gunfire from a party member in the distance, really cool addition.
There seem to be 10-20 or so mini-kaiju sized bosses that you need to level to unlock before tackling them solo, or as a group. I haven't tried these bosses solo yet, but I might do that just to see how viable it is. Some of the mechanics don't appear to be solo-friendly, so it should be quite challenging.

Microtransactions - as it's a F2P, it's no surprise that the game launches with tons of already existing microtransactions for you to sink your wallet into. If you're used to Warframe's crafting system with Frames and weapons, this is pretty much just like that, where as the mission types and areas are built as a close copy of Destiny 2. So far, after just a day of playing, it seems like theyve made it easier to track down and acquire the crafting ingredients that you need than in Warframe though, which I appreciate. I also appreciate that, unlike Diablo IV, which is a paid game and absolutely tosses it's Paid Shop into your face at every chance it gets, this game, as a F2P, does not. Unless you click into the Shop on purpose, you can easily forget it's there. This is a huge boon to the game for me, as aside from the first launch of the game where you might get a Lost Ark style notice of whats new, there's no annoyingly glowing icons saying "click me", there's no in game pop-ups after that, and even when you unlock new levels of the battle pass, it doesn't give you any kind of notification that you have which is actually really nice.

back to gameplay - I think you can easily boil this game down into a mix of 3 games at heart : Lost Ark, Destiny 2, and Warframe.
Lost Ark's Multiple character system to enable you to tackle different bosses more easily, and giant bosses to boot.
Destiny 2's 3rd Person Shooter, which a bit more snappy controls, less floaty combat. I'd put it 80/20 for Destiny 2 x Warframe movement. Bunny feels particularly Warframe with her super speed where as Ajax feels like your classic Guardian. As stated before, very much inspired by Destiny 2's regions and mission style of running up to a node and activating the mission as you work your way through areas. These in turn unlock boss fights, etc etc.
Warframe : Warframe crafting, Warframe Frames, with a wee bit of warframe movement here and there (minus bullet jumping). the grapple gun makes things quite fun as you're moving through envrionments quickly, but the range of it takes some getting used to.
You can use your grapping gun to rappel onto bosses a la monster hunter, and punch away weakened armor plates, which works well when it works. I personally found it a little difficult to actually rappel up, as a lot of times the actually body of the boss as it's crouched can get in the way of your visual of the armor pieces. Better positioning would probably solve this.

some quick ratings -
Visuals : 9/10 with 1 being taken away as I'm just not 100% on board with the style of the skins in the game. some of them are really cool, but a lot of them just have a bit too much detail for the sake of detail. panel loops upon panel loops. Still some great looking characters though, and I can see skins improving over time as with any game.
Gameplay 9/10 - very enjoyable looter shooter, easy to jump in with friends, though I wish you could pull up the social menu in one step instead of 2, and without having to fill your whole screen with a menu. Shooting feels great, As far as Bunny goes, the abilities feel good, and combo well, and also have a bit of a mastery to them to get the most out of them which is nice. So far there's a solid variance of guns, including craftable ones, though I wouldnt mind a tad bit more unique guns. I'm not asking for the Halo needler... but I'm also not not asking for the halo Needler. That's one thing Warframe has over TFD so far, is the weapons and munitions are much much more varied in Warframe, where as TFD feels a bit more along the lines of CoD guns with Halo influence on how they behave.
Speaking of loot! there's a lot of it. You're constantly swapping out your set of guns for a new 3 as you find them in the world (though I imagine in end game, you simply keep your best ones, and use found ones to power them up like in Destiny 2). There's also a bunch of augment type items to customize your build which is very much like Warframe, as well as card based augments for your guns and "Descendant" that is 100% Warframe, to the point of having specific slots that halve the cost of a specific type of augment.
Story : 3/10 but it's trying. So... the story is .. a story, but is it a fun and engaging story? no. It feels like it's more there, to be there, and feels like it's trying to draw from Destiny 2 a bit too much with a matching big bad baddie in big bad armor doing big bad things. Maybe this will improve over time... who knows, but as someone who generally will take the time to read through and enjoy the story of a game (600 hours + in BG3), I am skipping everythinnnnng because it's kind of feels like it was written by an A.i. The jist : there's a metal heart thing that's uber powerful and you're trying to get it back.
Audio 9/10

#1 - Please let us Customize our keyboard controls for those of us who prefer to use keyboard/mouse. : middle mouse feels awful for Parry.

#2 : For Mouse/Keyboard, it would be nice if you could Dodge in the direction of your cursor without having to be holding down movement, this feels super weird and forces you either always hold down a move direction in order to dodge when you want, or tap move at the same time as you tap dodge which seems unnecessary.

#3 : support for Ultrawide 5120x1440 monitors would be awesome!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great game. been waiting 5+ years for this and it's everything I was hoping for and more. fun pvp, super fun PvE. great to play with friends. I wish it had 8 person co-op for questing instead of 4, but other than that, 0 complaints. The korean voice acting + subtitles is also much preferred over the english VA

Firstly - the art style is fan-flipping-tastic. Everything about Secret Ponchos feels really fresh and unique. I'll have to review again once I've spent more time in it, but my first impressions are great. Each character has a unique loadout which provide more than just range/damage/speed differences, but in some cases completely alter the way you play the game. There's a really slick level of polish to areas of the game that make it a joy to play. From the way the whip trails after you on the Phantom Poncho, the gorgeous poses and animations of every character, to the responsiveness of the controls and abilities. I'd definitely say some characters are much easier to pick up than others. Within a few minutes of playing Phantom - landing a stun with his long range whip, diving in close and quick-switching to his short range double barrel felt really great, Where as other characters, such as the matador have some extra layers of depth in the learning, and most certainly the mastering phases.

Obviously it's early access, so there's a miriad of areas for improvement that, with the active and involved devs, seem like extra layers of polish just waiting to happen. There's nothing that really stands out as "game-breaking" or annoying in the gameplay right now. Once you're playing it feels fluid and seamless, and the strategic aiming /range mechanics mixed with the fast-twitch FPS feel is a ton of fun. I would 100% recommend picking up the game with a bunch of friends and dueling it out Secret Ponchos style!