Recent reviews by DarkStar

Top Klendathu simulator. 10/10.
Very fun. Good Game. Negative reviews were left by arachnids, bots, and your communist neighbor Greg.

Don't be like Greg, enlist in the HellDivers today.

So you've probably seen the people review bombing the game because the workshop isn't in yet, and maybe you're thinking of skipping this one. Don't. Don't you dare. This game is a diamond in the rough and you owe it to yourself to experience it. Is the game short? Yes. Is the workshop in yet? No. But what is there is rock solid and this game will undoubtedly age like fine wine, artisan cheese, and Stiffler's mom.. Be a man and form your own opinion, give this game the chance it deserves. Don't let the salty jaded gamers ruin what could be a beautiful COOP experience that you haven't seen since Red Storm was still making competent Tom Clancy Games.

And to the "Took the money and ran" crowd, the devs are very active on discord. Anything not prohibited by an NDA is discussed in a timely manner. The tools are coming, don't be a knob.

In summary, It's a mixed bag. Not a bad game, but not a great one either. In the end, it felt like more work to play than it was really worth. A lot of love went into this game, and it shows,.. it just missed the most important mark: it wasn't ultimately very fun to play. AoA tries a lot of new things, it even gets some right. But at the end of the day, there plenty of RTS games that simply do the dance better.

The details.
[GRAPHICS] 10 / 10.
The game is beautiful. Environments feel real, buildings and units are *incredibly* detailed, and combat just looks spectacular. This game is a visual spectacle to behold.

[GAMEPLAY] 5 / 10.
Fans of the RTS Genre will find the gameplay familiar, but with refreshing innovations that make AoA stand out from the rest of the pack. Problem is, AoA's attempt to be different also makes is a bit inaccessible. Economy in this game is more complex than it really needs to be, with not 1 or 2 but actually 4 different resources to manage (I'm including power) and that detracts from the overall experience. The economy takes time to master, as it's a delicate balancing act. and functions differently for each faction. You'll spend most of your time min-maxing the three harvestable resources... which feels at odds with the fast-paced and unforgiving combat.
Balance is tricky to judge. AoA favors a Rock-Paper-Scissors approach to balance which works for the most part. Most units in this game are punchy but fragile, but the roster is full of units that never quite feel like they're worth the investment, given that even some dedicated units often lose to the very unit they were designed to counter without an expensive late-game upgrade. This issue compounds itself during the campaign, where you're often restricted access to dedicated counters to what the AI is fielding, and specific spam becomes the go-to strategy. In short, the gameplay feels rewarding when you get it right, but the moments can be far and few between.

[INTERFACE] 9 / 10
Everything you'd expect from a modern RTS is there, hot-key binding to unit groups, build menu shortcuts, unit queuing, etcetera. Base-building is slightly different in AoA, but its intuitive and easy to learn. The mechanics of the game are easy to pick up and all the important information is presented in a logical manner. The only thing I'd have to ding AoA for is the scale, units are small and hard to recognize, which makes micro-managing them difficult when every action is crucial.

[CAMPAIGN] 3 / 10.
Not. Great. AoA's predecessor (Act Of War) had a well thought out, well paced, and incredibly immersive campaign fully loaded with professional live action cut scenes. You'll find none of that here. The campaign feels more like a tacked-on afterthought than anything else. The story is pretty bare-bones, voice actors phone in the lines and all-in-all the presentation always feels stale, even fresh out of the box. The challenge is purely artificial: the enemy doesn't need to farm resources and simply spams overwhelming numbers of units in predictable patterns. Every mission feels like its on rails and requires a very specific strategy for success, which sadly limits the players capacity for tactical flexibility. The final few campaign missions are brutal and require intense micro-management of resources and units, in a game that doesn't excel at either.

[MULTIPLAYER] 6 / 10
This is where the game shines... for the most part. The game will appeal to the competitive RTS crowd, but won't hold your hand if you're more of a casual player. Multiplayer matches are longer than a typical game of Generals, but the most rewarding part of the game. Skirmish mode is a waste of your time, the AI is not a very reactive or particularly bright foe, often resorting to large unit blobs rather than using anything strategically.
Like the campaign, the key to victory is often smart economy management and good micro of units, which is easier said than done.

If you played this back in the day, you'll love the remaster. Its a faithful recreation and a true labor of love. The integrated map editor, mod support, and expanded soundtrack will give C&C fans a package they can grow old with.

TLDR Version: If "I gotta present for ya" was ever your ringtone, buy it, its good.

Let me paint a picture for you:
Its 5AM. You're platoon has just staved off yet another Warden offensive and ammunition is running low. Your encampment has run out of building materials and the last supply convoy left an hour ago... nobody has heard from them since. Realizing the position is doomed to fall, somebody suggests a last ditch counter offensive to retake a key strategic island in the middle of the map. With hope in their hearts and fire in their eyes, dozens rush to answer the call. Over the next half hour, secret stashes are emptied out, boats are built, shells are loaded into the guns and the remaining bullets are carefully distributed to the men. In a matter of minutes, total strangers have come together to form a naval armada that would shame the East India trading Company.
45 minutes into the preparations and the mood is electric; the voice chat cackles with jeers and warcries as the mortar shells pound the earth around them. Strangers made comrades profess their undying respect for the stoic defenders who've sacrificed countless hours holding the last line of defense. Promises are made to bring back supplies, vengeance, tanks even. You truly feel like the journey you're about to embark on will truly make a difference in this little war of ours...
But then you the realization hits you like a 7.62mm bullet to the scrotum: this is no army, this is a ragtag group of players from all across the northern hemisphere who've deprived themselves of sleep and are riding on lightning rod of energy supplied by red bull and marijuana. Some of them don't even speak english. The naval force you've spent an hour preparing is listening to the leadership of 3 different people, one of them a private. Troops pile into the landing craft and overload their maximum capacity. "Get Out, I can only take 6!" the driver yells... "No mi Gusta", "We dont believe you this is a huge boat" the grunts reply. Half the armada sets off early, anxiously steaming to one of the three supposed rally points that nobody can agree on. Someone drops a grenade inside the boat while another blasts the theme song to "Pirates of the Carribean" into his headset. Another 20 minutes pass, we're still on the dock.
Finally the assault comes, the moment you tell yourself you need to see before you can clock off for your 8AM shift. The beach comes into sight, the boats turn towards the chaos. You can hear the guns wailing as the doors drop, signaling the end of the begining. This is it. The immersion comes rushing back, it's Saving Private Ryan and you're Tom Hanks, This is going to be... legendary.

Or at least it could have been.

Machinegun fire rakes the front of your landing craft. 3 people die instantly. The gunboats that were supposed to clear the beach went off the another island because they got sick of waiting for the landing force to arrive. You now realize that 3 of the 5 boats forgot to pack medical kits. The troopers that did make it onto the beach forget to set the cargo ship as their spawn point...we won't be seeing them ever again. 2 of the boats that you started with never even made it to the island, nobody knows where they went. One of them happened to have all of the ammunition. 10 minutes into the assault, and there are 5 of you left of the 50+ strong fighting force. You're hoplessly attacking concrete bunkers with a pistol because... well... you came this far. The comms channels have gone silent, half of the group has logged off. and the port you left is under fire. You sit on the beach, defeated, and read the mocking remarks being writte by the 4 enemy soldiers who routed your entire assault with nothing more than 2 machineguns and a rifle.

This... my friends, is Foxhole.
It is undoubtedly one of the most ambitious, unique, distinctive, and polarizing MMO's I've ever played. It takes a simple concept and executes it in perfect fashion: let players control the economy of their war. Every bullet, every sandbag, every respawn, was paid for by another player's hard work. It forces you to use strategy and cooperation like no other game ever will. The soldier driving the truck full of rifle rounds is equally as important as the trigger puller. Tanks dont just appear for any idiot to hop in and waste: each component of your fighting force is an investment, and something as simple as throwing a grenade carries tremendous weight because of what was done to put that grenade in your hands. It makes you think, and makes you consider your actions in a way that not many games can. This is what makes Foxhole a true gem and an experience that every wargamer owes to themselves to try.

Its not the prettiest game on the market, and it doesn't reinvent any of the mechanics it borrows from... but thats only because it doesnt have to. Everything functions as you expect, visuals and sound design are approriatly tailored but won't give you anything you haven't seen before. Guns are your standard WWII flavored assortment and maps are thoughtfully designed. So if you have a few hours to kill and you want to be a part of something that comes around once in a generation, give Foxhole a try... enlist now.

Warface is another F2P shooter in a crowded market that does little to differentiate itself from its competition. While the shooting mechanics, match-making system, sound and graphic are all up to par with Crytek's other games and maybe help it hold its head above water, the game is plagued by what seems to be a new batch of issues every time a patch drops. Each day is a roll of the dice, sometimes the application runs and sometimes it doesn't. This could easily be forgiven if it was a new or isolated issue, but a large percentage of players have been experiencing the same issue since as far back as 2014. The third-party application is poorly designed, memory intensive and should not have passed the quality control department.
If you get into the game itself, things run smoothly. For a F2P, its certainly a fun game to play with a full squad. The developer's market system is run-of-the mill and offers more of what we're used to, but weapons you;ve spent hard earned cash to acquire break down and require more cash to be "fixed". This is a gimmick used to force players to spend more time in-game, but its more effective at turning them away.

Simply put, Warface is too inconsistant and generic to realy be worth your time in a market full of titles that do exactly what it does but better.

Let me be perfectly blunt: If Eugen keeps pushing these out, I will keep giving them my money.

Its simple: this DLC is well put together. Sure, they only added a handful of new models but they reskinned the ones they reused which is a step of from what we had at release. The faction has its own strengths and weaknesses and doesn't swing the balance to one particular side. It's a nice addition to the German forces when combined in a coalition but realistically can't stand up to the might of the Major nations like the USSR. This pack was well thought out prior to its release and I applaud Eugen for really hammering this one home.

It should be mentioned that those of you complaining about price have no right to do so when we recieved 3 DLC packs with maps AND factions for free. This is Eugen;s way of making back their money. If you can;t support that, your opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

Obliterating hordes of bugs, robots and aliens have never been this much fun!
HELLDIVERS is an, exciting, intense, over-the-top experience that you... as a citizen of Earth, owe to yourself to try. The gameplay is simple enough so anyone can jump in and play, but just deep enough to keep you interested months down road. The in-game arsenal is large and impresively diverse, offering about 50 different ways to cleanse the galaxy of communist alien scum. Mow down enemies with a handheld laser cannon, hop into Mech and gun down your opponents with good-old-fashioned bullets... or nuke em' from orbit: the choice is yours.
While all of these are great selling points, what really sells this game is it's intelligently designed COOP mechanics and its theme. Drawing heavy inspiration from cult classics like Starship Troopers and Warhammer 40K, HELLDIVERS isn't ashamed to wear its inspirations on its sleeve... it embraces them proudly to great effect.
Buy this game, make some friends, and enlist them to help spread Democray and Liber-for all humanity.

5 out of 10.

The concept is very promising, but the delivery falls short of just about every expectation. The gameplay mechanics work well enough, but lack of player involement makes most of them useless. Horribly balanced and still very buggy, Guncraft will fall off of the radar within a few years.

Still though, for the price tag it's not the worst thing you could spend money on.

4 out of 10.

Although the Delta force series is a timeless classic, this installment does not do Novalogic's legacy any justice. If anything, Delta force Xtreme 2 is a soulless money grab. It offers so much less than it's predecessors that it's almost a shame to call it a Delta Force game in the first place.

The game is not without some strongpoints though. The gameplay is solid and the custom content offers endless replayability, but activating an account near impossible and once you're online you wont find much to do. The AI is abysmal and their's little to no difference in weaponry. this game will not challenge you, and fans of the series will be dissapointed with Delta force: Xtreme.

Take the money you'd use to buy this game and instead go out and buy a copy of Black Hawk Down... a much better experience.