Recent reviews by derringer pirate

So the game is certainly pretty good given what there is at current. writing with the current amount of hours i have, i have finished what content there is. Progression seemingly stops at around level 20 at current.

The combat system is quick and simple, press buttons to use skills, hold attack, run around. Similar to older RPG which this game is heavily styled after. Each class at current has some useful skills, making them viable even later on, everything has a fair balance so far. I wouldn't regard this game as easy either, you are always against uneven odds with enemies having various abilities and "special" versions with more health and attribute bonus. Although while not inherently easy, its certainly a nice casual game to mess around solo or with friends (i do believe there is enemy scaling when playing in a party).
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As far as negatives go, just not alot of game yet, though for 10$ certainly worth it.

Now this is extremely nit picky of me though, their parkour system certainly needs some tweaks. i dread to think what later stages parkour might look like when finally added, given the parkour systems current state, although the bandit class does make these easier, getting extra jumps.
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extra bit, i am wondering if they're going to do sub-classes? because right now with current game mechanics, any weapon CAN work for any class thanks to this games enchant system. Which leads to potential og a lot of hybridization of characters later on.

i can't recommend this when it takes me an entire hour to just get past the first cinematic... The "minimal" requirements needs to be updated for this game. I had to turn down EVERY setting just to get into the first area. and it was still lagging despite my PC specs being a bit above the minimal requirement.

my pc specs are above the steam minimal settings, and the game is barely playable.
specs are:
i7-processor
1920x1080 monitor
1070 Nvidia card
16Gb ram

According to a good friend i have, they tell me that the even with a 3070 card, the game struggles at times even on lower/moderate settings.

well the game is really nice. with the few hours i've played the game is quality. It's kind of rogue like in which- every operation you do (win or lose) will give you some money at the end to improve your characters either by getting new load-outs or upgrades you find along missions. "beating" the game doesn't yield you a true ending, apparently this is one of those where you should play multiple times if you wish to see the games real ending.
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now an overall pros/cons deal
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Pros-
good dynamic gameplay

good music- BIG SHIE boss theme is amazing

interesting boss fights (each one differs in some way)

leveling enemies (the longer you play the harder they get)

Vehicles- while they are present they aren't relied on heavily, but when you do get them they are VERY strong.

decent controls- my only issue with controls is when selecting a target there is no "intuitive" deselect attack button which when i first started did cause me to friendly fire a few times.. BUT this mechanic is useful in some situations

Smooth combat- the games focus is based on 2 things, moving *alot*, and your SYNC attacks, not to mention many abilities are strong.
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Cons-
Some minor bugs with animations currently (nothing game breaking, just looks weird)

if you don't try out other characters or load-out when they unlock, expect this to get repetitive doesn't seem like there's much mission variety unless you run special missions (rebel army marker).

certain missions, especially early on, seem obscenely difficult compared to later missions (may have to do with the true ending i believe)

actually that's it... overall a really great game for 25+$

i want to clarify this- as someone who has played various metal slug titles in the past, this game (while "easier") than the originals should be taken with a grain of salt.

- it has similar playstyle to originals
- combat feels smooth for a port of mobile
- boss fights are kind of nice in the little bit i played.

now here's the issue and im sure some others have noticed, this is a 1 to 1 copy of metal slug J ported to PC/steam from over 2-3 years ago with no significant changes.... And on top of that it's based on a money grubby style of most mobile games, being that you CAN pay for better gear/boosters/ and "stamina" to play more.... on top of the soon arriving PVP mode i read on the launcher, this game probably will turn into pay to win very soon.

I personally think that players would be better off waiting for metal slug tactics, or just going back and getting an emulator for the originals.... That is if anyone wants a decent experience to the true core of the metal slug franchise. This game- is watered down for mobile...

so after a long while in the community i have finally decided to make a review.

i've been playing for a while now and frankly, the game is good, obviously it does have more potential.

Marauders is a hardcore shooter, most guns will kill you in a couple hits even with body armor, death is permanent and if you don't have a team mate you can't recover any loot. Now let me state this, while loot is something you need for pvp. you can get away with being patient, joining very late, and doing salvage runs. all of which has been intended to help new players get loot.

The stamina mechanic and combat feels smooth enough, although there are a couple bugs with hit reg still (especially against AI).

looting is a simple system, being slot based. each item takes up 1 square or more. and most of which are 2x2 or smaller except guns and armor.

the game also offers good weapon variety, varying from larger rifles, to shotguns, handguns, and even smgs. all of which has their own niche situation.

the biggest issue with the game right now is player base, and updates. the devs are a very small team of about 4-6 people and have done what they can, even with a rocky instance with their publisher. And thanks to this game's hardcore nature, it turns away many players due to how punishing it feels at times.

with all that, i'd say if anyone reads this review, give the game a chance at least.

what is blood west?. at its base value its a semi-hardcore game a bit like resident evil 4/dark souls. you have 3 chapters of game play each gave me about 4 hours per chapter and for this game being 25$ at full price isn't bad. You can blow through the missions in minutes but this is one of those games where you wanna get it when you have no idea what it is. each chapter gives you a new map with new enemies + upgraded versions (more HP and abilities). Exploration is encouraged as you find some very strong and unique items hidden around key locations.
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now onto what i see as good:
+really nice leveling system
+open world maps
+make your own character skill tree + items.
+exploration focused game
+old school graphics (things like quake/soulreaver)
+tetris inventory with additional backpacks to increase size
+simple combat
+punishing revive system
+neat bosses
+resource management, bullets are a precious thing.
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now the not so good:
-basic story
-weapon play is a bit weird (both melee and gun)
-some enemies have funky attack areas (bigger attacks than they should be)
-stealth mechanics are a bit odd due to "noise" detection, this also goes into gun play.
-monetary values are VERY low even with perks in late game (careful what you buy early on)
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i have to write the last thing on my mind regarding this game separate as it is something other like and others may not. as far as i know there isn't a new game+ which is unfortunate because a lot of this games replay value is going back through the game to complete achievements, build a new character, and find unique items you may have missed through the first time. I can't peg this as a negative or a positive point due to having experience in fallout new Vegas which also does this.. building a new run to get other builds/items.

other than all that, the game is fun, a bit of a challenge, everything is well polished, the voice acting is alright, and it holds up to the price they offer in my opinion.

honestly a bit disappointing after a few hours of gameplay now.

CONS:

this game was a bad reminder of why i quit playing games such as tf2,cs:go, and other things with hit scan shooting.
And with the addition between that and easy anti-cheat you cannot tell who is cheating and who is legit thanks to it being hit scan with no damage logs. So how do they tell who is cheating without it being blatant?

Another issue aside from the devs lack of anti-cheat, is the current game meta, high damage character are practically worthless at current VS. the characters that are purely built for spamming.

spawns are also a bit atrocious especially in solo, two maps are to small to support a 10-12 person lobby. attempt to do ANYTHING and you are immediately targeted.

The final issue i have with this game is it feels to choppy, the devs just posted a latency patch not long ago, but the servers still feel really choppy, half the time if its not a person jittering around, its shots not landing on target due to servers saying they didn't.

THE PROS:
its a cool concept that works well for a "team" co-op royale, spies in the 60-80s period based on things like james bond, etc.

objective is simple, wipe out enemies and/or extract with brief case.

character variety is ok, but remember the following, many of them aren't worth using currently.

the style of the game is nice to look at aside from glitchy ai doing weird things on occasion.

the game has some bugs but nothing game breaking except for a invis glitch and on certain maps you can break into objective areas. which is punishable.

what i suggest:
given the games current state i CANNOT recommend it, its a laggy mess with no character balance and to many character that are just "why?".

solo lobbies probably should be decreased at current for 2 maps thanks to their small size and claustrophobic feel.

The other thing is regarding the spam, character optimization is needed badly with the classes of the game, i only see about 4 people being used at current, larcin, cavalier, yumi, and ma-dame. with the others being practically cannon fodder.

furthermore about the spam, some games with hit scan punish the over use of jumping/ sprinting side to side to dodge attacks, this game does not which combined with how choppy character models and the servers are, hitting others is sometimes near impossible thanks to that choppiness.

i cannot help but feel this is another case of: out of the oven to soon.

tbh im dissapointed when i got this game. i played through the mobile version on all difficulties, the galaxies was something i was hoping for. take a pinch of FTL, some logic from things like O2 not included. and make it open world.

the only thing is though the game is abandoned, i refunded the game and left it to sit to see if any updates mightve came out, checking out it now, seems like nothing changed.

i was really hoping for a ship game like similar to things like ftl but more open. i know there are titles like this but they dont scratch that particular itch of "chose your own path" without extreme grinding like some other space games. I will say though i do know of another title (rebel galaxy) that did scratch that itch, i just wish it had been more akin to something like space crew/bomber crew where the ships could be FULLY modified

so 14 hours is what it took for me to beat the game on just normal. For a game with relatively low mission count compared to classic starcraft's 30+ missions that's pretty good.

pros: interesting take on a RTS throwing the basic formula's of things like starcraft or warhammer away and making its own mark. Very heavily focused on unit placement more than how many units that you can field at once. Supplies are limited being a sort of "unit cap/food" similar to starcraft but shrunk down into squads. War support is your special currency(?) for heavier units and structures of the game. structure building is simplified to your outpost capture areas limiting build options (this can be a bad thing if you prefer free building like starcraft). None of your units are invincible in mass numbers, you must diverse them in order to survive.

cons: buggy movement for units as to be expected with most RTS, drop-ships can be locked up if a unit cant reach them. for a mass bug vs human RTS it feels like the "masses" aren't massive enough, (it might be on harder difficulties i'm not sure). Limited building placement options, and bases are easily over ran by bugs if you don't leave some infantry behind, limiting attack options (could be intentional?).

2 Personal gripes about this game i have for mission options. 1 A endless holdout mission like in the movie would've been nice. And 2, a couple "special" scenarios where you actually control bugs and have to change tactics based on which force you're on.

the DLC is both good in detail but mildly infuriating to assemble the tanks due to how many pieces they have now.

Also while this is a good DLC i am having issues getting the IS-2's Dshk machine gun to function as well as the back machine gun for the is2 to work.