Recent reviews by val ≽^•ω•^≼

I was surprised, I ran out of games to play with any semblance of a story and nowadays the steam store is just loaded with tripe, unfinished games which fail to follow on any promises stated during development or soulless cash-grabs titles ruined by greedy publishers..

I picked this game up not expecting much, I don't particularly get that invested in tribal themes where your primary weapon is a bow. But that entirely changed, every second I spent on the game I became more and more involved in the story. I made a full attempt to listen to every single voice log, observed every single clue to give me more insight to the world, and I adored the reverse theme of being the less advanced civilisation unearthing remnants of a far more advanced civilisation. The story gave me huge mass effect vibes in some aspects and really it almost does have a lot of similarities.

The game did a brilliant job of making me actually care for characters, to begin with I thought Erend was some pretentious annoying filler character, by the end I was wishing for more time with him on screen. The plot entirely had me hooked and the gameplay was incredibly satisfying, the slow time for careful shots of weak-points and easy ammo crafting making it a super gratifying experience. I could literally only say my only gripe was some of the errands (being a less important sidequest) were a bit repetitive, find tracks, follow tracks, kill machine, etc. That and the fact that the world can be a bit of a nuisance to traverse because it takes a while to unlock on-demand mounts but those are non-issues really, they didn't negate from the experience in any meaningful way.

I couldn't ask for more in a game I picked up assuming it'd just be a quick grab to dump a couple hours into when I'm bored. If you're unsure about the game, trust me, so was I, just take the leap and buy it. Chances are you'll be as surprised as me by how invested you get.

tremendous game, was the first breath of fresh air i've had in the survival/builder genre since minecraft, it was almost felt like I was 13 again loading into my first minecraft world with excitement wondering what i should do first...

...but that's entirely let down by the obnoxiously slow development rate, this game hit the ground running just to trip up before the finish line, i understand that these things take time are better unrushed but i have zero clue what direction this game is going or when that's going to happen, it eventually led to the same gameplay loop getting boring and the game falling further and further down my recently played.

spoiler free

i'll go right into saying the dialogue in this game almost feels AI generated, as if they knew what they wanted to say but it was communicated by a soulless machine, i'm not sure if that's the result of the developers being fairly small and not having access to decent script writing or the fact it's a Chinese group and the dialogue is lost in translation, but either way it's substantial enough that I can't fully enjoy the game.

it's a shame, as a result nobody is really worth talking to and every conversation with background characters feel strained and charmless, jokes are forced and the environmental storytelling only half makes sense, it really takes me out of the really enjoyable atmosphere of each level.

tl;dr leaving a positive review because i'm personally enjoying the other aspects of the game but if you can't overlook the fact that a lot of the dialogue isn't great, you'll want to go elsewhere

[REVIEW UPDATED AS OF 15/12/2023]

I was originally leaning negative, slightly salty that a game with so much potential had so little being done with it..

Whilst still true to an extent, with the slow development time, the limited content that is actually being dropped is supremely high quality, with the latest update adding a range of quality of life features and UI changes that I absolutely welcome.

I'm pleased with the latest update, and thoroughly enjoy the new maps provided, alongside the genuinely really pretty lobby change and other features like the new singleplayer AI changes bringing us closer to that true SWAT 4 remake.

It'll take time for this game to be where it deserves to be, as a genuine in-depth tactical co-op experience that offers rewarding and varied, high intensity gameplay. At this stage, it has the skeleton totally fleshed out so to speak, and now it just needs to be dressed up with slightly more progression features than outfit unlockables.

pros:
- despite the location being Australia-esque I haven't been attacked and killed by various large spiders, yet.
- my thrist for digging up carcinogenic trash and selling them to pay off insane amounts of debt is satiated by the metal detector.
- though fletch tried to escape south city, she is powerless to stop me from pathing over my slice of paradise with concrete
- i can set myself ablaze by walking into campfires
- i can dump car batteries into the ocean without any repercussions
- i can put kangaroos in cages and have them shot into the sky
- some nerd pays me bank for scratched CD's
- i love hitting rocks

cons:
- the crocodiles know where I live and they refuse to let me leave my tent
- i am feral and the game wants me to create a functioning society
- you can't kill john
- debt

the game is phenomenal, especially with friends, there is an element of grind but quite honestly games like these are meant to be time-wastey-mindless fun for unwinding after being utterly destroyed on your shooter of choice, you're coming at it from the wrong way if you want it to be a quick dopamine experience, the satisfaction comes from work paying off

that said, i can't wait to see where the game goes from here, especially with so much content at early access

>pick raven
>spam economy buildings
>people start starving, buy food
>people are freezing in winter, buy wood
>people are unhappy with their homes, buy stone
>my outsourced military are dying, buy iron
>not enough food to buy land, use coin
>everyone died in the last raid, buy people
>friends are bored of me milking the economy, build Naglfar, directly attack their townhall without needing a single military structure, win the game.

not a single issue that cannot be solved with money, raven best clan.

i get far more joy out of doing drive-bys and stunts with a mountain bike and a nagant revolver than I do trying to get a chicken dinner.

quite frankly if I as a police officer saw someone in a business suit wearing a halloween mask fly past me at olympian speeds carrying half a ton of gold and a minigun, I would just let them get away with it.

haha 20mm cannon go thunk thunk thunk thunk

god i hate quincy