Recent reviews by =M$= Oroberus

Even 2 years after the 1.0 release of the game several significantly gamebreaking bugs are still present, some of them are even publicly confirmed by the developer to never get fixed.
Many of those bugs are directly linked to the crafting system, therefor partially makeing core mechanics of the game unusable without manual editing of game files (which is against the EULA of the publisher and voids the user from legally playing the game).

Unfortunately, a perfect example for the bait-and-switch mentality of many developers/publishers

Great take on the Rogue-Like Genre with a pretty unique twist on the setting and wild physics based combat.

If you liked Exanima for the mechanics, 100% give it a try :)

In short: Escape From Tarkov in The Zone of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as a top-down 2D Singleplayer Shooter

Eins der besten Angel-Spiele das ich bisher gesehen habe, die MTX/Premium hält sich in Grenzen und wird nicht unendlich gepusht, also auch erträglich.

Der deutschsprachige Support ist allerdings den Zeitaufwand eine E-Mail zu schreiben nicht wert. Während der englischsprachige Support sehr hilfreich war und auch wusste was zu tun war, es aber nicht konnte, da nunmal mein Account in Deutschland verortet ist, hat mir der deutsche Support in einer einzigen E-Mail gleichzeitig erzählen wollen, das mein Anliegen nicht möglich ist aber es eine Alternative gäbe, die allerdings genau das, was in meinem Anliegen angedacht war, nbotwendig machen würde ... wtf!?

Kurzum: Völlig planloser Haufen, am besten weit von entfernt bleiben, sofern man sich in Deutschland oder Österreich befindet.

Leider hat Giants hier eine ganze Menge nett aussehenden aber unfertigen Mist verzapft:

- viele Spieler können das Spiel gar nicht erst starten
- ein guter Teil Derjenigen, die es starten können, haben große Performanceprobleme, unabhängig der Grafikeinstellungen
- grundlegende Feldfunktionen funktionieren nicht (das Weglassen von 4 Arbeitsschritten und die Durchführung von nur 2 von 6 Arbeitsschritten bringt das selbe Resultat, bei enorm veringerten Kosten (Geldkosten und Zeitaufwand)
- verschiedene Funktionen wie das Kalken und Pflügen sind mapabhängig nicht korrekt implementiert (manche Maps werden als komplett ungekalkt oder ungepflügt angezeigt, auch abseits von Feldern, auf der US-Map funktioniert das kalken aber zB nicht mal)
- die Durchführung von Ernteaufträgen für NPCs ist zwar möglich aber oftmals nicht abschließbar
- im Winter fällt zwar Schnee aber weder gibt es Aufträge den zu räumen, noch gibt es einen tatsächlichen Anlass ihn auf den eigenen Wegen zu räumen

Im jetzigen Zustand ist FS22 Vanilla ein tatsächlich weniger funktionsfähiges FS19 Vanilla mit weniger gameplay

Status: Finished on Ranger
Time: 75,5 hours (included 1 restart after about 8 hours)
Tl:DR below Wall of text

I'm a bit torn on what was actually good and what could have actually been better, in general, I'll recommend every fan of dystopian RPGs to buy and play it though. Wasteland 3 is a worthy sequel to WL2 (it has it's references but it's far from being just fan service) and a worthy cousin to Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
The writing itself is pretty much what you would expect off of a project by Brian Fargo, it ranges from 'filler but fine' to '♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy hilarious with a pretty serious underlying tone'. The effects and gore work out and are fitting, although some of the energy weapon effects are a bit over the top, even for Wasteland. My two biggest gripes are the music (outside of combat there is non, except for the occasional radio song while driving on the world map) and the camera. The camera feels way to slow and slidy, although you can change the speed, it still feels kind of cumbersome, especially as you can 'only' rotate on 8 angles and the rotation is not buffering (wanna rotate 2 angles? Got to rotate, wait, rotate again, annoying!).
Quest design generally is good and they made sure to not make outcomes of decissions foreseeable, you will have some decisions which will turn out 100% as you thought and others will have kind of a boomerang effect, what might annoy some people but imho it makes the world more believable (even without oure usual suspended disbelief because of ... well it's a video game, d'uh!). Companion design is a bit on the more unrealistic site of things, not because their written bad or not useful but some of them feel they're too quick to fall in line with the Rangers but they do add a nice layer to the game as their quest related banter work out well. My only gripe with Quests is, that there are way too less sidequest, if you compare Fallout 2 and Wasteland 3, it's a bit like Baldurs Gate 2 and Icewind Dale.
The combat can be a bit hard to get into and some people might want it to be a bit more in depth but it is satisfying, although you really want to make sure when to click where, otherwise you'll shoot yourself, run out of cover etc, the usual turnbased issues BUT, it's turnbased so with all the negative things TB-combat comes with, all the positive things are there too and besides the RNG determining the outcome of shots, in the end it's the players strategic abilities which determine the outcome of a fight.
Graphically I don't have to say much, it works out, looks nice but not cluttered and really helps to build the athmosphere, which was spot on, same goes for sound design (except the music mentioned above).

TL:DR
+ questdesign, story, replayability
+ quite the range of weapons and armors, nice for collectors and gives a bit of a looter-shooter vibe without it's downsides
+ graphically fitting and pretty
+ worthy installment in the realm of postapocalyptic dystopian RPG
+ cross references to it' sequel but not pure fan service (also quite some popcultural references which you don't even notice if you don't know what is referenced, so injokes which don't hurt if you miss them)
- a bit lacking in number of sidequests
- several non-gamebreaking bugs (will pretty surely be patched)
- soundtrack is good but you kind of encounter it too rarely
- a bit on the short side in terms of playtime for this genre (60 - 70hours with full completion on ranger)

To buy or not to buy?
In my opinion, for fans of postapocalyptic dystopias, it's close to a must, for fans of Fallout, Wasteland and ATOM-RPG, it is a must. Same goes for fans of turnbased combat, while a bit lacking in depth, it's a fun game. For most players which are more on the casual side of things, maybe wait for a sale but then ... buy it ;)

Would Take 2 not have taken over/bought Squad and therefore the license of KSP, this review would have been an outstanding one but even after such a short period of time since this happened, it's already obvious that the licence and also the already released game will go downhill.

After having bought Squad, T2 enforced new terms of use for all users, without any possibilty to refuse such changes in terms of service.

The released DLC is buggy beyond any imagination and also impacts performance deeply, while the core game itself was fine in every aspect, if you've net explicitly tried to 'call the Kraken'.

The released DLC was mentioned to be 'free' for 'early adopters', this does not mean, for people backing via early access but only for people who bought it in april 12, during which time no media coverage was was given of the title, so if Steam didnt mention it to you and you bought it a bit later after learning about KSP, you'Re out, no DLC.

The money made from the sold DLC will NOT profit the people actually developing the game and/or will develope it in the future, it will go right into the new owners pocket (Take 2, which has had nothing to do with the game, the studio, the IP or the actual work).

DO NOT BUY

This is a prime example of a bigger company jjust preying on the work of others, as good as a game KSP itself might be, consider your responsibility as a consumer.

In general a nice casual reskin but it has lost greatly in gameplay depth in comparison to earlier titles and has not brought up crucial innovation or new ideas.

Also, with the latest changes/decisions/visions of the management of Take Two Interactive (2K and Firaxis are affiliated under them), I just can't recommend this or any other game connected to Take Two Interactive (including already released titles.

For more information check:
http://www.pcgamer.com/take-two-wants-recurrent-consumer-spending-opportunities-in-every-future-game/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-a6S2VDWI

Nice game, a bit flawed compared to the past ones but with the latest changes/decisions/visions of the management of Take Two Interactive (2K and Firaxis are affiliated under them), I just can't recommend this or any other game connected to Take Two Interactive (including already released titles.

For more information check:
http://www.pcgamer.com/take-two-wants-recurrent-consumer-spending-opportunities-in-every-future-game/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-a6S2VDWI


*****UPDATE*****
The mods are even starting to block users and delete threads and posts connected to this news. Guess we'll have the next Streisand Effect upcoming with this behavior


*****UPDATE*****
2KGames/Take 2 Interactive are using Red Shell tracking software to fingerprint users (via machine ID) online to analyze and maybe even sell, the collected data to push aggressive advertising campaigns based on browsing behavior of the users.

This is a clear violation of DSGVO § 202a StGB which reads as follows:

[...]
(1) Wer unbefugt sich oder einem anderen Zugang zu Daten, die nicht für ihn bestimmt und die gegen unberechtigten Zugang besonders gesichert sind, unter Überwindung der Zugangssicherung verschafft, wird mit Freiheitsstrafe bis zu drei Jahren oder mit Geldstrafe bestraft.
(2) Daten im Sinne des Absatzes 1 sind nur solche, die elektronisch, magnetisch oder sonst nicht unmittelbar wahrnehmbar gespeichert sind oder übermittelt werden.
[...]

Translated and shortened it means nothing else then: Don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ use spyware, announcement of the spyware in EULA does NOT change it, it still is illegal.

At least on german customers 2k Games/Take 2 Interactive are knowingly violating federal law by implementing a data grabber/spyware/click tracker like Red Shell

DO NOT BUY
NOT NOW
NOT ON SALE
NEVER

EDITED BELOW " "

"The game itself is fun, without a doubt and it has bugs too, without a doubt but the main issue for most people ist:

You can't even get into a match. After sitting in the connection screen for quite some time it just returns you to the main screen with an error message, that the connection to the host was lost.

Happened to me 11 out of 13 times by now.

The forums contain plenty of threads regarding thing but neither the dev nor a mod have yet made any announcement regarding this. I'm fine with Early Acces games being buggy or poorly optimized but if the Early Access game is a multiplayer only with obviously non funtionion netcode, I'm not fine with it.

PU should get back to mod existing games instead of programming a new one, at least with stolen netcode it works."

I got it done and it now works for me regarding the matchmaking, so this point is cleared BUT:

The game still crashes on returning to lobby and the optimization is quite a big deal. Right now, at it's current state, I will keep my negative score as I don't think that the game is worth it's money right now.

But as for Early Access, performance and the lobby-crashing might/will change with future updates.

I will keep this review updated with every change (be it for good or worse)


EDIT:
After quite a while with the game now, I still say it is fun ... when it works. The connection issues are still present just like the server lags. The performance even worsened over several patches instead of getting better.

Beside this issue, the game still is lacking some major features which were promised on EA-release:

- FPP is extremely unstable and glitchy
- no offline shooting range
- still messed up vehicle physics

And besides those issues, the developer devided to not take care of those bugs and performance issues, or even implement new features, instead Brendan Greene (real name of PU) decided to put microtransactions into his game and host tournaments.

While, as a game, it is fun if you can play it stable, Greene turned out to be one extremely shady and disrespectful person, even going so far to ban someone for being accused of streamsniping of which Greene (he admitted it himself) had no real proof but the streamer said he was streamsniped (he was playing without any delay ... come on ...).

Also several threads pointing out especially this shady behavior and especially pointing out that PUBG shows more and more signs of being a scam&run in the long shot (2 to 3 years) are deleted without any notice of the deletion.

Playerunknown's Battlegrounds is one perfect example of a shady dev milking the good faith of customers with misusing early access and this should not be supported. Anti-consumer at it's finest


EDIT:
****************************BREAKING NEWS******************************************

I'm a bit late as I nearly missed it and just learned about the latest Bluehole shenanigans:

The amount of chinese players led to a lot of downtimes, queueing issues and server crashes on the chinese side, as BH's provider could not handle the traffic. Instead of getting in touch with a capable provider and getting some more potent servers running, they decided to contact a fee based chinese proxy provider.

Now chinese players have to PAY on a MONTHLY base a THIRD PARTY COMPANY to be even able to play the game.

This, by itself, is ridiculous enough but in the bigger picture are not only the chinese forced to pay third party to play, they are also raising the traffic in all other regions as they have to play via VPN on the servers.

Oh and in a side note:
Steam forums are no longer moderated as bluhole stated: "We're not able to keep it up, too much work"