Recent reviews by Chilkoot

A fun and sometimes funny dungeon romp.

• Character progression is noticeable and satisfying
  
• Combat is varied and engaging
  
• No gamebreaker bugs - the software feels mature
  
• Generally addictive core gameplay loop

• The writing is pretty weak; story/NPC's are muddled
  
• (English) voice acting is really awful in places
  
• Painful ping-pong running around for some quests
  
• Some achievements require a full, separate playthrough

Some of the meta-reference humor is really on-point for the target audience, so pay attention to the dialogue.

Overall a good gaming experience, and recommended for RPG players.

Patch 0.2 (For Science!) changes everything. Go buy this game.

A worthy successor to West of Loathing, but different in some significant ways:

• Less focus on combat, stats, and grinding: Min/Maxers may be put off.
  
• More cohesive story arc, and generally more engaging writing

Easily worth the price, easy recommend.

Endearing characters, fun story, decent puzzles.

Works great on a tablet with touch-only controls.

Short, but good value overall.

The mechanics look solid, but I was unpleasantly surprised to find there is no kind of campaign or story at all - just a sandbox mode. I can hear every actor on the planet yelling "What's my motivation?!" A valid question that every developer should ask themselves when designing their game.

Without some kind of story arc this game feels like a grind from the first few minutes. As much as I love ancient history, and as excited as I was to play through and unlock technologies, this one falls flat from a "fun" perspective - it's not engaging.

When you get the same feeling looking at the loading screen as that first, long uphill heading out for a run, it's a good indicator you're playing the wrong game. A bit of story behind the grind would likely turn the whole thing around, but for now, this one should sit patiently on your wishlist.

This is a deep, engaging adventure with memorable characters, mind-bending puzzles, and captivating battles. 60+ hours to complete, many, many more if you like to ferret out secrets, which are hidden around every corner.

PROS:
+ Complex and meaningful skill trees. You will debate your progression path at every level
+ Deep and captivating combat. Varied enemies will force you to constantly develop new strategies
+ Truly jaw-dropping visuals in some areas. UE4 shines in this title.
+ AAA+ sound design. Up there with the best environmental sound and musical scores in ... well, ever, maybe. Play with headphones or good 5.1 speakers.

CONS:
- Non-plot optional side areas can be dauntingly difficult
- Still some minor bugs and crash-to-desktop issues
- Forced homages to previous releases and kickstarter backers can be hokey/distracting

Overall, a must-buy title. The Director's Cut positions this title to become a decades-spanning cult classic.

The new science parts will break your game and ruin your save. DO NOT USE THEM. That's half your money gone right there.

Two general categories of parts are introduced in this expansion: Science and Robotics. The science parts are bugged beyond belief. The fact this Xpac made it out the door in its current state proves the producer is as disinterested as the developer in delivering quality content for your hard-earned $$$.

Even if the parts worked as described on the tin, the gameplay elements they add are poorly conceived and of little value. If you want science, biome hopping is still the only real way to go. Poor part design; far worse execution.

The robotics so far I've found unstable enough to say they are only worth tinkering with in sandbox mode. The robotics parts lineup is solid and the new pieces (ON the drawing board) are very exciting. Their unreliability and lack of proper physics programming, however, will have you pulling out your hair from the Launch 1. Explosions are supposed to happen when *I* fail, not the programmers.

In short, if all you want to do is invoke the Kraken and make reaction videos for your high-school friends, maybe this xpac is for you. However if you're looking to engage in the progression modes and launch something that flies longer than your 90-second YT shock video, give this one a very hard pass.

Pleasantly surprised with this game.

The voice work, sound design (esp. music), and general game design are AAA-level. Even some of the one-and-done NPC's are more memorable than principal characters in other top-shelf titles.

Bugs are present, though nowhere near what others have reported at launch. I'm looking forward to the major polish pass due in 2.0 - but the new content in that release will really just be icing on an already fully-baked cake.

My primary criticism is that the game tries far to hard to hold onto the story roots of the original games. It's a fun throwback for the very few of us who played the series in the 80's, but the developer I think far overestimates the impact and familiarity of those early works. This game stands on its own without pandering to a player base from 30 years ago.

For general RPG fans, this is a strong buy with 35-60 hours of engaging, fully-voiced play in varied and beautiful environments. BT IV checks all the boxes of a game worth your time and mony.

Nutshell: A fairly compelling game with some brilliant linguistic elements that form the game's core mechanic: piecing together an ancient language to unlock mysteries of the past. Marvelous but sparse voice acting punctuates the somewhat repetitive gameplay. The currently unpolished interfaces prevents an otherwise excellent game from taking it's place among adventure classics.

Pros:

• Intriguing story
  
• Engaging use of an invented language, woven into the core game mechanic
  
• Superb voice acting
  
• Some brilliant dialogue moments
  
• Feels as close to real archaeology as you'll find in a game

Cons:

• Less than 5% of dialogue is voiced. A real missed opportunity
  
• Unconventional and frustrating interface
  
• Weak mini-game travel mechanics
  
• Repetitive gameplay elements

The developer is very responsive and in light of the many patches and improvements already rolled out, I'm comfortable giving this game a strong buy rating.

I bought this game 4 years ago (Jun 2015), and have always wanted to love it. So much potential, and so many promises.

Sadly, the story mode has been spinning in limbo at 40% complete (including a re-do), and survival mode is just far too shallow to hold a player's interest. Crafting is extremely narrow, with no consequential choice among the very few items which can be fabricated (or found for that matter). Inventory is a major headache, being essentially fixed through the course of the game with no meaningful progression path.

And therein lies the problem: the lack of any feeling of progression is the underlying failure of this game. At no point will you feel like you've *accomplished* something, and that you are now a wilderness-survival bad*ss ready to take on new challenges. The same few enemies will harass you from beginning to end, you'll harvest the same materials, and eat the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥ beans on day 1 as you will on day 100.

These points, as well as a lack of engagement from the dev (expect responding to reviews) give me little hope for the future of this title. So 4 years later I must finally give this once-promising title the thumbs down and shelve it along with any hope I had for a great survival experience set in the Canadian wilderness.