Recent reviews by Tamaster

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Cutter Slade, former soldier and protagonist of the first Outcast, is brought back to alien planet Adelpha by a mysterious force believed to be the “Yods”, intangible deities that chose him as the Ulukai: a sort-of messianic figure of local lore, destined to lead the tribes towards their true destiny.

From this rather unoriginal and quite literal deus-ex-machina, you’ll be then-introduced to a series of characters that are rarely remarkable, be them friends or foes. Exceptions apply, however don’t expect a roster of well-written and memorable characters, because you won’t find them here. Slade himself is the prime example of one-sided, flat gung-ho military man with a marked tiredness / depression in the way he acts - in part justified by his own lore.

The plot itself is the emaciated, more-magic version of James Cameron’s Avatar, where a bunch of pre-industrial tribes manage to stay head-to-head with a space-faring, militaristic opponent through the raw power of friendship. Magical! Is it a good story though? No, it’s not; reason why I watched a TV series on a second screen half the time during cutscenes.

The worldbuilding is quite excellent: Adelpha really does a good job in conveying the ambiance of an alien world, particularly in the amount of detail and density of its environments. Lush forests, deserts and stormy mountain peaks are all available and well-diversified, while villages have been minutely-crafted with great care - also the reason why performance in those places is absolutely terrible even on top-tier hardware.

You’ll explore Adelpha with the aid of your integrated jetpack, which will at first enable to boost above ground, and later on also to glide in the air, jump multiple times and gain altitude quickly, enhancing Slade’s mobility tremendously.

Anytime, anywhere fast travel is available after you repair the Stargate-like portals called Daokas scattered in the world, which also double as “spotting towers” to highlight nearby POIs. The world is extensive in size and full of secondary encounters, secret collectibles, respawning enemies and harvestable materials to either sell or use in crafting and upgrades.

It’s enjoyable to navigate this stunning-looking, alien dimension; an attentive eye and curious attitude will often be rewarded positively. A system of markers and trackers ensures a good amount of guidance for quests and tasks, although sometimes you’ll have to find things on your own, which is good. There are well-hidden collectibles that are either related to achievements, or have tangible rewards such as unique weapon modules if enough are collected and brought to specific NPCs.

Slade will at first be equipped with a relatively weak energy pistol, and then gain more tools of the “trade” both from Human technology and custom-crafted Talan weaponry, other than straight-up magical powers from the local gods. While these are all interesting in their own accord, skills and Talan-made gizmos aren’t as good as plain old firepower: the weapon customization system allows you to combine modules to grant traits to your otherwise-generic guns.

Split shots, electrified bullets, ricochets, explosives, charged sniper beams - all of it is there and can be combined together for maximum lethality - too much in fact, since some broken OP combos can obliterate enemies in seconds… as if the game wasn’t easy enough already. Your foes deal considerable damage, but their AI patterns are slow, predictable and clunky and their aim is garbage - anyone remotely decent at shooters will make quick work of them all. Dodge, take cover and headshot your way to victory. You’llalso be able to improve the Talan gizmos for better effects by completing specific tasks, too bad they’re all underpowered trash you’ll never use.

Bosses aren’t much better, since half of them are the same copy-pasted “elite” enemy, while the other are unremarkable weaklings you will probably steamroll if you did a bit of secondary stuff beforehand. The final boss is tough, but just doesn’t cut it against a fully-upgraded Slade and all his magic.

Slade’s guns, shield, melee implement and jetpack can be substantially upgraded with Helidium variants, colored gemstones gained from enemies, the environment, missions, chests, tasks. Pretty much anything. The more stuff you do, the more upgrades you’ll be able to unlock and, in turn, gain more mobility, better resistances, more module slots to make custom weapons, additional skills that allow completing previously (almost) impossible challenges and tasks.

The crafting system allows using foraged ingredients like meats, herbs and enemy parts in making potions and consumables - something I didn’t find very useful at any point since it’s really not worth the trouble, the basic healing fruits and plants will do just fine for the few times you’ll ever be in a pinch, if any.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




This prequel to Nier Automata is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has regressed to pre-industrial civilization levels, since most of the land is infested with Shades, murderous shadow monsters that attack people on sight. In this perilous setting flows the tale of Nier and his sister Yonah, the latter befallen by an mortal disease known as Black Scrawl, her brother desperately seeking a cure by traveling the lands fighting shades. In a sort-of ‘manifest destiny’ way, Nier will come in contact with unlikely companions, and prove to be the pivotal center of massive changes to his and everyone else’s lives.

Despite initially appearing like the generic ‘worried brother’ anime stereotype, Nier proves to be a well-written character; the same goes for his companions and antagonists, many of which are interesting and have unexpected - but plausible - changes of mind, or of character, throughout the adventure. Even lesser side characters’ stories feel meaningful and rich in pathos - so long as they’re part of the main plot, forget the puny, generic side-quests probably written by an underpaid intern. The worldbuilding is also high-quality, with a mysterious, genuinely puzzling world where many things aren’t at all what they seem - the same goes for people and even foes.

It’s a shame this narrative goodness had to be eclipsed by an amount of filler worthy of the most bloated shounen anime.

The world outlays in a semi-open fashion, with some areas being more or less far-reaching, and fully traversable with little in terms of invisible walls or artificial progression blockers. If something isn’t accessible yet, there’s an organic, real reason for it - you’ll need to progress the main quest to gain access to most other areas and, importantly enough, to the late-coming fast travel system. With respawning, randomized loot pickups and enemies, in a ‘JRPG-like’ fashion, areas are suitable for repeated grinding, which becomes mandatory for weapon upgrades and side-quests. There aren’t many cryptic secrets, since map layouts are clearly defined - at most you’ll find an optional weapon in some random chest, but that’s it. Towns are safe areas filled with different shops and many NPCs, some of them with quests - in all honesty, they’re only useful as shopping hubs.

Nier will initially have only swords at his disposal, but from halfway through also gains access to spears and greatswords. He also has the inseparable Weiss at his side, a magical book capable of unleashing spells and imbuing Nier’s gear with passive enchantments, words, literally torn off the bodies of dead foes. Each weapon category has several combos and attack types, however none of the weapons have anything different except base stats, appearance and sometimes speed: this means each spear will have the exact same attacks of any other, same for swords and greatswords - what remains is finding the one with the best DPS. This makes combat much more repetitive, since the “best weapon” is only one, and you’ll use that or worse version of it.

A system of dodges, parries and counters is in place to reward good timing and reflexes - a bit too much so, since parries are very easy to pull off and extremely powerful, while the dodge i-frame interval is generous. Enemies, save for few exceptions in specific areas, don’t damage Nier too much even on Hard, and the easily-obtained consumable buffs and healing further empower you and prevent death - you’ll be able to simply pause the game and use buffs / healing as long as you have any left, without any animation or delay. All of this makes combat, including bosses, way too easy and forgiving to overcome. Despite the options it provides on paper, it never really gains a new depth at any point, given that most spells and even Word passives aren’t worth using save a select few, further diminishing the actual variety.

Nier will level up after enough XP is gained; this makes him stronger in many ways, none of which is customizable, however. What you can control is what weapons you decide to upgrade, and what Words to use in each of them to grant them passive buffs - same for spells, which however can’t be upgraded. There’s a decisive malus when facing enemies far higher than your level, namely a damage malus on Nier which makes your foes enormous HP sponges - this diminishes once the level gap is reduced, but since you can’t know an enemy’s level, good luck with that. Weapon upgrades may also change their appearance in some cases, but not their function.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Starting as a miner nobody on a remote planet, your run-of-the-mill ‘deus-ex-machina’ starts when you happen to stumble on a mysterious alien artifact that, coincidentally enough, seems to attune to your person with yet-unknown consequences. MAGIC! It’s the same trope of Skyrim’s Dragonborn, only much less cooler because this time you have a rusted piece of alien metal instead of dragon souls sniffing. And you’re dubbed ‘Starborn’ not long afterwards, because Bethesda writers have a LOT of imagination. From there your journey through the stars starts yadda-yadda-ya - use the Force, Luke, and so on. Boring.

Everything from locations to quests, characters, companions and villains feel terribly generic, underwhelming and soulless. Not once in my nearly 70 hours have I said, in my head, ‘now THIS is interesting’ - or cool, or deep, or mysterious enough to interest me. That’s not going to happen, because trying to please everyone with cookie cutter narratives and character designs ends up pleasing NO ONE.

The world looks cool, and is visually fantastic in its details, especially out in the wild. Interiors, ships and general indoors locations, save for a few, feel generic and same-y, and don’t have the same level of interactivity seen in previous Bethesda games. They even removed the gore system everyone loved. The attempt at a ‘late-hard-sci-fi’ universe fails miserably, because it’s not nearly gritty enough, and doesn’t take itself seriously enough, to be fitting for a true ‘hard sci fi’.

You’ll explore the galaxy using your ship, jumping from system to system, able to land on pretty much any planet that has solid ground. Once disembarked, you’ll proceed on foot and, if you have the right perk, move faster with the aid of a jump pack for additional jump reach and better mobility. Reaching most locations is a tiresome affair, since your running speed will be very slow compared to the distance you’ll have to cross - with very little of interest between you and the next map marker.

Forget all the interesting random encounters of Fallout or Elder Scrolls, those won’t happen on these barren planets. Points of interest range from small outposts to multi-layered facilities, often filled with enemies, containers, loot, locked doors, terminals with lore - the usual. They’re interesting to explore the first time around, however the massive amount of copy-pasting will make them tiresome soon, since very few truly unique ones exist outside of questlines.

Exploration is compounded with a surveying system allowing you to painstakingly scan all resources, animals, elements and flora of each planet and then sell the data for a pittance - that’s not worth doing and takes ages. There are some secrets in the form of hidden locations discoverable only by reading specific documents, or hidden containers inside POIs, but they’re usually underwhelming - exceptions apply.

You’ll be able to use a variety of weapons that either deal physical, energy or EM (stun) damage, and also modify them via workbenches - same goes for armor parts. There are rarity tiers that add passive properties, although most of them are gimmicks not worth grinding Legendary Enemies for. The problem with weapons in Starfield is that they feel too similar to one another, and even ‘unique’ named ones are just normal guns with pre-set modifications and affixes, none of them is TRULY something one of a kind you can’t find anywhere else, powerful and sublime to look for.

Combat gunplay is fine, somewhat on the same level of Fallout 4, but less dynamic, with worse AI, and less gore / impact feel from shots. All enemies you’ll face feel the same, behave the same and LOOK the same because 90% of the time everyone wears spacesuits, even while inside. Except in cities. Companions are brainless meat-shields only useful to carry additional cargo, and the enemy AI is so dumb you’ll have a cake walk if you use a stealth build or just use basic cover. You’ll eventually acquire special powers due to your “chosen” status, which are memes I never really found useful. I’ve fought a total ONE unique boss in 70 hours in a specific quest, the rest were just oversized / renamed / reskinned generic enemies over and over again. FillerField.

Companions are one sided-flat and cringe in most cases. They don’t really seem to react to your personal dispositions in meaningful ways, or to your actions, and when they actually do, you can always persuade them to stick with you for the sake of the plot - God forbid actual freedom of choice. Remember how in say, New Vegas, companions ditched you if you behaved against their values or beliefs, or allied with a faction they hated? That’s not going to happen here, and there isn’t even a Faction reputation system to begin with.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Billionaire Edward Puffton has gone missing on a mysterious island he recently purchased, so you, as part of a private security force, are tasked with finding him and discover why comms have gone dark. Of course things don’t go as planned, and you soon find yourself, alongside your eventual co-op teammates and the inseparable AI-powered companion Kevin, stranded on the very island you gotta investigate. From that point on, you’ll have to fend for yourself in the wilderness, under constant attack from savages and unspeakable abominations, while enduring the weather and survival needs.

The enormous island is visually spectacular: forests are lush, caves are dark and creepy, cliffs windy and barren. Even if largely dominated by nature and native outposts, you’ll also find man-made structures such as bunkers and construction sites, albeit sparingly. The cycle of seasons is dynamic and directly impacts flora, fauna spawns and also survival difficulty, with harsh winters being especially brutal.

With its simple premise, the story isn’t SOTF’s fortè, but does the job, especially when compounded by the many optional lore pieces you can find around. Bordering on ‘à la X-Files’ sci-fi at times, but mostly dominated by a dark splatter / horror mood, the narrative isn’t Oscar material, but is also not terrible.

You’ll initially move on foot on the large island, a GPS always available to display your position and also any important location you might spot or find info about on acquired lore pieces. Faster means of transportation will become available at some point, but all of them have certain drawbacks such as fuel or inability to be used everywhere.

Generally speaking, exploration is rewarding due to the sheer number and amount of resources you’ll find on a generic stroll between camps, outposts, caves, bunkers and random loot containers that periodically ‘magically’ refill. All marked POIs always have a unique tool, key item or weapon in them, alongside a unique layout and usually threats to deal with. Careful exploration will be rewarded, as there are many missable items, blueprints and weapons hidden in remote, but not impossible-to-find, locations of the world.

Unlike in the first game, this time around you’ll have access to a roster of guns and other ranged options, other than several melee tools. Fighting native incursions and raiding caves packed with Lovecraftian abominations isn’t easy, and you’ll likely die many times before figuring out each enemy’s unique attack patterns, behaviors and weaknesses.

Death penalty is minimal regardless of difficulty, in fact you’ll respawn alongside your gear at a short distance without any downside. Enemies hit like trucks, and without armor you’ll die in a few hits even on Normal difficulty, let alone harder ones, which I tested in my second playthrough. Having a teammate to help even the numbers is helpful, since your companion Kevin can’t fight, and those who can, can’t be commanded to act consistently. Combat is gory and has very good weight behind it, with dismemberment and decapitations being a regular event.

There are a couple bosses found in major locations, which however, exceptions made for the final one, are little more than reskins of normal enemies, just with much higher damage and health pools. Even the final unique boss is not very strong, and with the resources you’ll have by endgame, it will be little more than a pushover.

You’ll soon need a place to shelter yourself, deposit excess loot (there will be a lot of it), plant crops, dry meats, and do everything else in order to survive the next oncoming winter, or the next savage horde knocking at your walls. You’re free to build anywhere on the island, with a freeform system that allows creating customized buildings using tree logs - a system that is fantastic sometimes, but can be a real pain in others due to how it works, and there isn’t any real tutorial for it, either. Of course building closer to savage camps will lead to more incursions, while building closer to caves will have more abominations ruin your days. In either case, your base will come under attack by stronger enemies as days go by, with a roster of traps and defenses to help you fend them off. Yes, everything can be destroyed if you get overrun - don’t let it happen.

Survival needs include sleep, hunger and thirst. They won’t kill you, but instead reduce your maximum stamina to the point you’ll be unable to perform most actions without being exhausted. Staying decently fed and rested will be vital to not become an emaciated cyst flatlined after a single axe swing. Generally, this isn’t a hard task: clean water and basic foods aren’t hard to come by with some basic tools found in early game; after that it’s a downhill course. Dungeons like caves are usually more than enough stocked to prevent it, as well.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




I don’t think Robin Hood needs much introduction; a valiant hero, perhaps anti-hero in a way, that became a synonym for the struggle of the downtrodden against the oppressors. This title remixes his classic folk tale to a more ‘gaming-friendly’ one, having you in charge of managing the Merry Men, Robin’s gang, as they run from the law and set up a base of operations in the fabled Sherwood Forest. Some iconic characters will be present, like Marion or Little John to name a few, however the acting and writing don’t nearly do justice to them at any point. This isn’t a narrative-heavy game, but not for the lack of trying: there’s an extent of lore and background to each quest and event happening in the world, however they all pass on as unremarkable by either poor writing, genericness, or plain clichés.

The world is massive, and dotted with many endless locations that are worth exploring. On paper, this sounds great, but as the adventure progresses, all its good looks and lush vegetation aren’t enough to mask the repetitiveness of not only activities, but also places, enemies and just about anything else. The amount of recycling in this game would make the most fervent ecologist look like a newbie.

Sherwood and its environs are massive, and you’ll explore all of them… only on foot, because in all his thieving prowess, Robin can’t, for the life of him, get a horse to ride around. Nevertheless, you’ll stumble upon ruins, enemy camps, villages and even full-fledged castles manned by the Nottingham Sheriff’s minions. Getting close enough to a point of interest will reveal it on the map, and you’ll be able to fast-travel around using signposts and stable masters, paying respectively nutrition or gold as cost for your travels. Because yes, you’ll have to manage survival aspects like food and water, which are anyway trivial given the abundance of supplies found anywhere - why even add them, if they’re a non-issue at any point?

Robin’s Hunter Sense, an upgradable active skill that highlights enemies, animals, resources and interactables, is a boon to know exactly what you have laying around, however its cooldown, even after upgrading it, remains too tedious for its own good. Mostly in ruins, you’ll find simple logic-based puzzles that often entail inputting the correct sequence of either blocks, notes, symbols or whatever else to open a gate that leads to treasure. Despite the variations on this baseline, you’ll always have to do the same thing: figure the order of -whatever- to open a gate - same archetype, slightly different execution, but after 20 or 50 it becomes a slog regardless. Less puzzles but more unique unto themselves would’ve been a better choice. Secrets are as well present, but often trivialized by the all-seeing Hunter Sense.

Not only Robin’s legendary bow mastery will be at your disposal, but also his flawless swordsmanship and uncanny stealth capabilities. With diverse skill trees and associated abilities, you’ll be able to specialize in the playstyle you like the most, in order to clear hostile camps, dungeons and encounters. From specialized arrows to advanced sword skills and lethal stealth takedowns, the ways to solve situations are numerous. All of this sounds exciting, right? Well, it would be, if not executed like an absolute train wreck.

First of all, melee combat is jankier than the worst Eurojank titles. Gothic 1 feels smooth in comparison to this garbage, to make an example. You’ll either stunlock enemies in a flurry of sword attacks until you run out of stamina, or get stunlocked in the same way by five brutes gang-banging you - blocking is stale, and riposte is useless since you can’t actually follow-up a perfect parry with some kind of rewarding counter, despite the game stating so. Animations and combat flow are the lowest indie-tier trash you can imagine. Ranged isn’t much better, being a kiting game where you’ll try to headshot everyone while running in a circle, at least until your bow breaks for the 27th time in two hours, because weapon durability, like Breath of the Wild has shown to all, is a really fun mechanic.

Stealth is fine when it works, but it rarely does. X-ray, eagle-eyed foes will be able to spot Robin from miles away and from debatable angles, unless he’s in one of the conveniently-placed blue bushes around most camps and forts. Running away to reset enemy aggro and try again is common. Forget quicksaving, as this game still uses ancient fixed save points as if 1990 never passed. You’ll eventually get depression from fighting the grand total of THREE enemy archetypes in one of the exciting ways described above.

Your camp can be freely built and upgraded with a set of utility buildings, using the resources you get from the world or have your men passively acquire. Structures act as progress gateways that give you new recipes for weapons, armors and utilities once upgraded. Regardless of what you choose to craft, all swords and all bows will feel the same, play the same and no other weapon will ever be available. The grind of resources to craft vital utilities, in particular repair kits later on, will soak up a lot of time which becomes filler, while managing your stocks is a cumbersome work due to a crafting interface worse than Minecraft’s early alphas.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




Set in the far future, Helldivers 2 depicts a humanity united under the central militaristic government of Super Earth, because just ‘Earth’ wasn’t enough anymore. This already previews the satirical nature of HD2’s setting, which is ultimately a parody of fascism meant to mock such ideology. This is done brilliantly, with Helldivers often yelling slogans in the midst of battle, while broadcasts spew out propaganda at every moment on your ship.

Visually, the game is excellent, with plenty of beautiful vistas intertwined with the flying pieces or limbs of aliens dismembered by explosions, bombs and orbital cannons. There’s a high degree of destructibility and interaction with the environment, including partial terrain deformation from the bigger blasts. Literal piles of enemy corpses aren’t uncommon to form up during the hottest defenses.

HD2’s missions play out in instance-based maps, meaning each of them develops in a self-contained, open-world map with objectives, points of interest, enemy bases and whatever else randomly placed each time. Depending on the planet, the geography may drastically vary and include natural obstacles like rivers (Helldivers can’t swim, apparently), mountains, pitfalls and so on. The procedural generation of maps ensures constant variety in layouts, and is overall well-done.

You and your eventual teammates will traverse the world on foot; the movement system takes difficult terrain maluses, limited stamina and armor weight into consideration, so there’s no blindly rushing ahead. Primary and secondary locations are scattered in each map, many of which unmarked: you’ll have to rely on your sight and, sometimes, signal markers to find them - doing that is worthwhile, as they contain not only precious supplies, but also Medals, Super Credits and Samples, three currencies used to get new gear and improve existing ones with passives at your ship.

All of this happens while constantly on the lookout for enemy patrols, capable of calling endless reinforcements on you, on top of being on the clock with a time limit for each operation. Being efficient, fast and stealthy when possible is recommended, especially on higher difficulties.

Nearly all weapons are usable in both third person and ironsight mode - not something you often see, and a welcome addition. HD2’s combat is fast-paced, chaotic and often will see you heavily-outnumbered; being constantly on the move when possible, ‘kiting’ enemies around while shooting them and, most importantly, learning each foe’s weak-spots are all fundamental tactics to not get overwhelmed. The presence of a dodge with nearly zero cooldown is a saving grace to escape dangerous clutches, or avoid enemy ordinance volleys. Common enemies can kill you in a few hits, while elite ones may outright one-shot you.

Other than your personal loadout, the usage of tactical call-ins, ‘Stratagems’, is fundamental to win against overwhelming numbers. Turrets, airstrikes, orbital cannons, napalm, heavy tertiary weapons - you name it; only four of them can be equipped by each squad member, and all have a cooldown to prevent spamming and, in some cases, limited uses - use them when you really need to, and try to not kill your teammates in the process. In case of death, another Helldiver will replace your previous character, dropping down from orbit in the exact same loadout, using limited, shared lives for the whole squad - run out of them, and you won’t be able to respawn.

Other than regular enemies with their different grades of armor, speed and movesets, “boss” ones can uncommonly spawn at higher difficulties: these tough foes are the elite forces of each faction, and will often take well-placed stratagems and a combined effort from multiple players to be taken down - especially when several of them spawn at the same time. Because no, HD2 isn’t an easy game at all on higher difficulty tiers, unless you have a well-coordinated team and don’t waste time or supplies. Currently the higher difficulties are very much meta-heavy, due to the balance issues; that means only a few loadouts are viable because everything else is less effective or outright trash.

With the various currencies and XP acquired from missions, you’ll be able to upgrade both your ship and your arsenal, progressively unlocking new guns, armors with different passive effects, emoticons, cosmetics. It’s a constant process that introduces new tools to play with, stratagems and passives that give you more playstyle options, although the progress becomes rather grindy towards the last pages of the catalog. Super Credits, the premium currency, can always be obtained from POIs in regular missions, and from normal progression, so anyone can get premium catalogs and cosmetics for free, as long as they play. Is it grindy? Well, yes, but it’s not that bad.

Earth Command will regularly dispatch both daily and global missions for you to complete, or anyway be a part of. For instance, conquering a specific planet as a community effort will award all players great amounts of currencies, and also daily missions for each player boost the rate at which you acquire medals, essential to unlock new equipment. These events encourage a common goal and also trying new loadouts.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




For those unfamiliar with The Expanse, here’s a small rundown. In the somewhat-distant future, humanity expanded to colonize the solar system, using vessels and technologies that belong to the ‘hard sci-fi’ category. That means no warp drives, force fields, phasers or lightsabers; everything is as down-to-earth, no pun intended, and scientifically-feasible as it can be, with our current understanding of the universe, at least. Space travel is still dangerous, laborious and exhausting - as it should be. Inter-faction conflicts between a united Earth, Mars independentists and the remote Belt regularly ensue, threatening to break a fragile peace.

In all this, you’ll play as Camina Drummer, a hard-ass officer currently employed by disgraced ex-UNN officer Cox, on a clandestine salvage ship. With her being one of the prominent characters of the TV series, an entire spin-off wasn’t a bad idea, as long as they got it right. Well, in the end they didn’t. You have to understand Camina is a gritty, tough-as-nails Belter officer that went through Hell and back in her life, did unspeakable things and lived to tell the tale, with all the psychological consequences. Telltale, instead, decided to water down Camina’s grit and character, which leads to her acting like, and saying things that, she normally wouldn’t in the original source materials. Basically, she’s more of a crybaby and of a weakling compared to the series or novels - and it shows, especially later on. She’s still pretty badass, but nowhere near as much as she -should- be.

The roster of side-characters encompassing her adventures is fine, but that’s the problem - it’s nothing more than that. There will be only minor appearances of characters involved in the TV series, exceptions made for Drummer herself, so if you’re waiting for your favorite one to pop up at some point, that’s not going to happen. Be that as it may, save for Khan, the ship’s pilot, and perhaps Virgil the crew medic, no other character feels remotely memorable. The ‘main villain’, if we want to call them that, is especially cheesy and unremarkable. Very few of said characters show any growth during the events that transpire, and most feel one-sided.

Speaking of the setting, it’s an overall excellent rendition of the original material. From the interior of ships, tools, equipment, weapons - to the different mannerisms and ways of speaking of Belters, Martians and Earthers, everything has been transposed with minute attention to detail. Unfortunately, there isn’t any space for introductions to said setting, or any reference material like a codex or lore files, to help those unfamiliar with the TV series understand more of what they’re looking at. I would say that seeing the TV show is sort of a prerequisite for complete understanding of the events. Said events will be exciting at first, but get toned-down and less exciting as the adventure goes on. An attempt to make things spicy again is made during the last chapter, however it also misses the mark with its execution. The finale is more of a non-ending that leaves many questions - if that’s by design or laziness, we’ll never know.

Each level is linear, and unfolds in more, or less, open environments depending on the situation. In some cases you’ll be exploring derelict ships in an open-world environment with multiple paths and optional locations, while in other cases you’ll simply have a linear path forward, as expected from a narrative adventure. There will be optional interactions and items to collect in each stage, which might lead to different interactions later on. For instance, finding a lost hacking device early on might prove to be useful later - sadly, the number of such interactions is limited compared to the actual number of items you’ll find, most of which serve as nothing more than achievement-related collectibles. There won’t be any real, major ‘secret’ to speak of, but surely there will be hidden side-areas sometimes with extra lore bits or side-quest items you can then give to specific characters. Exploration feels interesting, and is often encompassed by Camina’s radio chatter with the crew, or her own personal comments about the situation.

There’s a limited degree of interaction with the environment: you’ll have to pick up or use specific objects as customary in this genre, while everything else will remain static for the most part. Certain sections have a bit more action, which either are about evading enemy detection with clever movement, or performing very forgiving quick-time events so fight, shoot, take cover and so forth. Failing any of these action sequences often means death, and restarting from the frequent auto-checkpoints. In some cases, it feels like dialogues or interactions are excessively forced towards a certain spectrum of actions, without giving players more freedom of choice - this is particularly true on the romance section, where you’re basically forced to romance a certain character and admit to love them anyways, even if you might not want to because, you know, it’s a choice-based game.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.




As if the Wild West wasn’t dangerous and merciless enough, a terrible curse was fated to add an entirely new layer of pain upon the land - that’s where you come in. Once living, now undead, recalled to duty by a mysterious shamanic totem, you’re tasked with eradicating the evil that has infested the world - now home to disgusting abominations and lethal monsters of all kinds. Not the most original premise overall, but it’s well-executed.

The worldbuilding of Blood West is centered around a low-poly visual style that, however, is compounded with modern elements such as lighting and physics, to some extent at least. It works well, artistically speaking, and fits the theme perfectly thanks to a high-quality direction. Those who want the latest eye-candy will probably be disappointed, though. Despite lore and story not being its primary focuses, it does a good job at layering ulterior depth about the events that transpired to both characters and locales; lore files, indirect narration, and other cues from which players can draw their own conclusions.

Each secondary character or small side-story is decently-written and, in most cases, fully voiced, which isn’t common for Indie-level productions such as this one - with good voice acting, too, I might add. The introduced characters are remarkable and some even display some degree of growth or changes depending on your choices. Overall it’s a good complement, despite it not being essential to the genre.

Each of the three non-linear chapters takes place in huge open-world areas you’re completely free to explore from the get-go, usually with no information other than a generic quest marker about what to do and a map; in some cases, not even that. It’s a good thing, as it encourages you to discover locations at your own pace without a set course to strictly follow. Wandering about deserted towns, muddy swamps and poisonous, cursed canyons is an interesting pastime for an undead, as most places hide copious amounts of resources, unique items, ammunition and key items to hoard.

And hoard you will, since the global stash is shared in-between all Safe Zones, that usually also house unique NPCs, that give you quests, trade and reveal most of the information you’ll get about the world’s sorry state. You’ll periodically have to haul back your loot, organize, trade and depart again to explore another bit of the map - a gameplay loop that rarely feels boring thanks to the constant new flow of unique encounters, items, enemies and locations. Secrets are everywhere, some more obscure than others, but all of them rewarding in their own way. Fast travel is possible via several consumables, but that won’t really become a necessity until the third chapter, which houses the by-far largest area.

Blood West is, above all, a stealth-focused game, and this can be understood by the enormous amount of damage most enemies deal, their erratic patterns making targeting difficult once spotted, and their general lethality especially early on. Rush ahead like a madman and you’ll soon get destroyed by seven abominations fisting you through -multiple- orifices, or you might get out alive but waste half your ammo supply in the process.

It’s a game of patience, of method and of preparation - understand how each unique foe behaves in combat, what their weaknesses are, pick them off you will make it. On paper, this sounds exciting, but in the end, the stealth system is simply too forgiving for multiple reasons, such as enemies not entering alert states when their allies die, losing aggro too fast, and generally being too slow compared to the player, which makes hit-and-run tactics exceptionally OP. I tried many builds with re-specs, and none is greater than pure stealth in terms of efficiency and ease-of-use, which is a shame.

The roster of guns and ammo types at your disposal will be varied, with several unique variants, some even cursed, allowing you to further customize your build, in addition to the passive perks you’ll acquire at each XP-based level up. There’s no shortage of loud options, from shotguns to rifles to pistols or even straight-up dynamite - it’s really fun to just blow everyone to hell, if you can afford to. Death means not only backtracking and respawning most enemies, but also getting progressively more cursed with passive debuffs - all of this can be circumvented and healed with specific items that, until much later, won’t come cheap or easily. It’s a good and fresh system that, however, doesn’t come off as challenging due to sheer power creep and balance issues.

Bosses are pathetic pushovers. I never even died -once- to any of them and blew all to Hell with the saved stronger ammo, consumables and explosives. I had far more trouble with some normal enemies than any boss.

At each safe zone, NPCs will trade unique and mundane items for money, and also buy anything from you. They also may give you quests as time goes by or specific main story events happen. In some cases, certain items can only be given to one of many NPCs, which in turn may unlock different consequences and items for sale later on. Side quests are very rewarding in terms of XP, items, and are generally worth investing time into. Despite their relevance, none of them is world-altering in the long run.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.



Everything was fine in the low-fantasy world of Cairn, until one day the regular, boring, non-lethal dawn became the Grim Dawn; that means, eldritch abominations started pouring out from various dimensional orifices, consequently bludgeoning humanity’s -own- orifices real quick. It’s actually a lot more nuanced than that, but you get the idea. Along this not-so-original premise, you happen to be a nobody left for dead, who is given a second chance to become the hero of the hour thanks to their unique situation.

There’s actually a surprising amount of lore for an ARPG, scattered around in many forms ranging from notes to dialogues, descriptions of items and so forth. Even if story and worldbuilding aren’t usually the centerpieces of an ARPG, those interested in them will find enough material to satisfy their inner bookworm. The writing itself is more than passable, the voice acting indeed a nice touch to give emphasis to conversations. Unfortunately, the characters themselves rarely stand out or become memorable, as most of them feel generic and cliched - but that’s not as bad for this kind of game, anyway.

Visually, the world is detailed and diverse enough; care was evidently put in building each location, even if at times the sheer size of them will make orienteering difficult due to the labyrinthine nature of map layouts. Immersion is high thanks to a fitting soundtrack and quality effects in all fields - considering their age, of course

The world of Cairn is entirely open, and divided in several named areas you can traverse freely, although to proceed, in many cases, you’ll have to complete the main quest first. Most locations are extensive and elaborate in layout, although they become more linear towards the end of the main campaign; many secrets such as hidden chests, secret quests, optional dungeons and even hidden bosses await the keen explorer. These may not always be super rewarding, but you never know when you’ll hit the loot jackpot.

Indeed, spending time to comb each centimeter is rewarding in many ways. The handy minimap and global maps are a boon, although they don’t always save markers correctly or at all, which makes backtracking to discovered locations more annoying, and the global map lacks the transparency layout expected in an ARPG. Mobs will not respawn until the session is closed and remade. Overall, the exploration component feels fun and rewarding, with the sense of mystery and discovery being higher than the average ARPG. Map layouts can be excessively convoluted at times, and you’ll definitely have to google some obscure quest locations, but overall a solid experience.

The combat of Grim Dawn is fast-paced and dynamic, with all characters having a default dodge move to avoid enemy projectiles, hits and AoE, while many other mobility skills can be acquired from items or class-specific progression. Kiting enemies around, especially against stronger ones, while also dealing damage and dodging will be a common experience, as not everything can be tanked or faced with the same strategy. On higher difficulties, expect a great amount of one-shots if you play a less resilient class such as a rogue, ranger or caster DPS (which I did). The playstyle heavily differs between each class combination, but ultimately, everyone has to be mobile, dodge and pay attention to enemy attacks to survive. Aggro rules make it so that whoever does the highest DPS often gets targeted, so tanks won’t be as useful.

There’s a staggering amount of unique modifiers specific to dungeons, affixes, enemy variants, abilities and gear-specific buffs that the combinations of what could happen on the field, and most importantly what you can make happen, are nearly endless. Most high tier enemies and bosses have unique movesets or even evolving phases, which isn’t something you see in all Diablo-style ARPGs. You won’t get bored, as it usually could happen, by the repetitive nature of foes, as even a second playthrough with the same classes has a lot of surprises in this regard, on the demanding Ultimate difficulty.

Your classic ARPG progression, based on XP leading to skill and attribute points gain, is spiced up by the Devotion system in Grim Dawn. As you progress and explore, finding Altars will grant you points to improve your dedication to the various gods of the world, which in turn grant you a variety of passive bonuses; these culminate in powerful, unique passives that can be combined with active abilities of your class, so that they trigger as you use them. This adds a new layer of depth to the already satisfying character development. Respecs are quite cheap and, most importantly, unlimited, even for attributes and devotions as long as you have the right items.

If you’re looking for some screenshots click here to view all the ones I took for this game.

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Little blocky men scurry dubiously-built streets at 1, 2 or even 4x speed to fuel the endless grind of industrial production. This, surprisingly enough, isn’t Ho Chi Minh City, but a creation of your own ingenuity, where any and all distinctive traits its denizens may have, and they indeed -do- have, fade into nothingness. In much-less poetic words, there’s no story or incipit of any sort in Forge Industry, it’s an open-ended sandbox that throws you straight into the ‘action’ without any further ado. Perfect for those who can’t be bothered with stories or plots, but a blunder for anyone else that would expect at least a contour, a hint, a context of any sort.

Each of your worker-automatons, ironically enough, has some distinctive trait about them, a small description of sorts, which means absolutely nothing and doesn’t affect their behavior in any way. Why bother with this at all, then, in a game that clearly doesn’t even think worldbuilding or story have any importance (which is fine for some games)? In any case, the world itself, regardless of the chosen biome, is extremely static and devoid of detail; a crude sketch that barely serves the purpose of visually-referencing what happens in-between production lines. Not even dynamic events will impact the looks of the environment, which will remain static and unmodifiable throughout, save for the structures and roads you’ll build.

There’s no definite goal in Forge Industry; your sole purpose is establishing an ever-increasing logistical machine for the sake of endless profit. Beyond the mini-goals set by a, initially-decent, but later on lackluster tutorial, you’ll be left to your own devices in figuring out how to produce for the sake of more production. Luckily, a handy in-game wiki-manual-contraption contains all the info the tutorial misses, which can be quite a bit.

You’ll be able to build a limited selection of structures initially, though that will change later on. Between buildings, you’ll be able to establish Routes, the main gameplay component you’ll spend most time fidgeting with - they allow you to decide what materials gerd delivered to which structure, by how many workers, how many times, and even add as many steps as you wish to the same route to increase efficiency. Say, for instance, it would be nice if those workers picked up some iron on the way back from the refinery, after delivering coal, so it can be sold at the market, right? Well, you can plan exactly that.

Unfortunately, the interface to do all this becomes cumbersome, fidgety and not-so-much user friendly in later phases. There’s some decent quality of life ideas, like a tool enabling you to clone existing routes, but sadly many problems remain in the system, like the inability to edit the materials of an already-ongoing route, or bugs that at times make routes or workers get stuck without reason.

In addition, you’ll have to also manage market orders, making sure to not buy too much or too little of any given resource to achieve maximum efficiency; if on one side this is managed decently with order caps and custom-set time intervals between buy orders, on the other there isn’t a clean interface to display profit and losses conveniently, as other games of this subgenre have, so it may be quite difficult to gauge if you’re actually working at a loss or not on-the-fly.

You’ll spend most of your time configuring and re-working pipelines to get a finished product out of byproducts and raw resources. For example, to make a sword you’ll need to craft several components and assemble them at a dedicated station. To research new buildings, you’ll need to deposit all the resources in the Atelier, a special structure, and then ‘buy’ the associated research. Unlocked buildings enable you to produce more complex and time-consuming gizmos, to then sell at the market or fulfill international shipping orders with, once available.

You’ll also be able to experiment with alloys to create metal combinations that fetch superior prices, and in some cases will be needed to research more advanced buildings. A nice mechanic that, however, feels RNG-based and formulaic due to precise proportions being needed to actually unlock new metals, something that can become dull and time-consuming, not worth your time. The point is, that there’s no reason to do any of this. You can make lavish amounts of money in just a couple real-life hours by selling basic crafted byproducts, like sword blades, made of the cheapest possible metal. Leave this going 2-3 hours and enjoy having 750.000+ gold, enough to last a lifetime.

What then? Nothing. The biggest flaw of Forge Industry is this: giving players the freedom to set their own goals, but at the same time failing to create a varied, stimulating environment rich in random factors and de-facto goals. It’s a barren, boring world where so-called events are minor fluctuations on a ledger, at best.

Logistics aren't fun in real life to begin with, what makes anyone think that would be in a game, without any further meaningful addition to their principles?