Recent reviews by Neonwarrior

9/10

Extremely addicting survival driving/mechanic simulator with horror themes thrown in, drawing clear inspiration from the STALKER series for its setting despite taking place in America. This game is for those who like resource gathering and vehicle/base building management type games as well as atmospheric survival horror. It actually kind of reminded me a lot of this little indie game called Fear Equation, except instead of a car you are managing a train in that game.

People on the forums are idiots; I personally thought the game was not particularly difficult, and I never died once in my first playthrough which took 23 hours. I experienced only one bug and no crashes. For those wondering, yes, the game continues indefinitely after you complete the main story, though there is no NG+.

Time to take out the trash!

The most boring Bethesda game I've ever played. Almost entirely devoid of soul. I beat the game and feel absolutely zero desire to ever replay it, even with the eventual mods. I don't even have a problem with the numerous loading screens or procedural generation—everything else the game has to offer is not worth your time, even at a discount.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but you should buy No Man's Sky instead—and before you start thinking that the narrative of Starfield might be worth checking out, just don't bother. If you took the walking and combat and fetch quests out of the game, the main quest would probably last 10 minutes. It's not that the narrative is *bad* per se, but rather it simply seems to be absent, not to mention the very strange aloofness that perpetuates throughout, almost as if the writers had either no idea what to write or simply didn't have any motivation or passion.

Don't waste your money or your time, even if it's on sale for $20.

As someone who has never once dreamed of playing Dungeons (I'm far too impatient!), and as someone who doesn't particularly even like medieval fantasy, I can say that this game blows my mind with its quality AND quantity. I was very hesitant to start playing a video game called "Baldur's Gate 3," but I'm glad I took the leap and gave this a chance; I haven't had this much fun in an RPG for a very long time, probably since I was a kid growing up playing Star Wars: KOTOR. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Knights of the Old Republic, that old favorite game from my childhood, worked on the same Dungeons rules as this game! It's super easy to get into.

I might actually want to play Dungeons now and I'm not sure how I feel about that fact.

But aside from that, as a videogame, Baldur's Fashion 3—I mean, Baldur's Gate 3—is so technically impressive that even after forty hours spent in it, I only just now entered Act II of the three-act story. Every single character, especially your companions, seems to have a new animation for EVERY. SINGLE. LINE of dialogue. I haven't ever seen characters this expressive before even in RPGs like Mass Effect 2 or The Witcher 3. In addition to that, interactivity with the environment is on a whole other level; the only other game I can think of that lets you interact with practically everything was this indie game called Exanima, also a medieval fantasy type game, which focused on physics interactions.

All of this with no microtransactions? When do I wake up from this fever dream? The only negative I can possibly think of is that Larian Studios requires you to use their own proprietary launcher to start the game, rather than simply starting directly from Steam itself. Also, anyone claiming that this game doesn't ever try to sell you products clearly did not see the Digital Deluxe edition being presented to you the moment you open up the launcher before you can start playing, but I'll give it a pass since the game itself has nothing like this inside of it.

Probably the first Half Life 2 source mod I've ever played, I started playing this in my childhood over a decade ago. I still hop on every now and then but you usually can only play on the weekends with about 30 other people. Similar to Natural Selection (which also used to be a source mod), each team has a commander who plays the game like an RTS and gives orders to the rest of the teams while placing buildings and researching new technologies. It gives a lot of the same vibes as Planetside in the aspect of emergent gameplay.

It's got great gameplay I haven't really experienced anywhere else, but unfortunately a lot of people expect you to be knowledgeable, and you'll maybe get yelled at for not following orders. I think this is mostly a side-effect of its tiny community, but it would be nice if people showed a bit more respect to new players. I still wouldn't describe it as being "toxic," but unfortunately a select few players are a bit of an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sometimes, and with a community this small, you have no choice but to play with them. The people at the top are trying to clamp down on this behaviour however and I think the gameplay is extremely worth it.

This mod used to be a lot bigger with hundreds of players playing at a time. Sadly its development has been extremely slow (I remember back when air vehicles were supposed to come out) but it's still maintained by an active development team. If more people started playing this, I definitely would be a lot more active, too, so I'm just going to leave this positive review and hope it convinces at least a few more people to join us.

Well, I refunded the game, maybe I can tell you why. I played 90 minutes before I gave up, for several reasons.

First off, the lack of 60+ fps support. Internal game engine hard-coded to run at 60 fps, so always choppy and stuttering despite .ini tweaks to enable (fake) higher framerates. I found the game to be almost unplayable in certain sections due to the mismatched refresh rate and I assume other software issues which caused incredible amounts of inconsistent framerates and drops that look and feel absolutely awful. If you have a native 60hz monitor, you most likely don't suffer these issues like I did with my 144hz monitor.

I shouldn't actually have to explain to some people why less support is worse than more support. My hardware did not cause the problem; Frictional's software simply was not upgraded to support it. It's like being told my OS isn't compatible, but I'm only in the 4% of the community that has it, so it was my fault to begin with. Must have been how Mac PC players felt a decade ago trying to get PC-only games to run.

Graphics and atmosphere did not impress even a little. I was reminded heavily of Penumbra: Requiem's very otherworldly level design, and playing at 1440p also did not help mask the low quality of what seem to be almost all of the textures of rocky cavern floors and walls, small objects and doors, and I know for a fact this is likely due to reusing of assets from much older games. I wouldn't be surprised if those rock textures were actually 10 years old, from the first game, and unfortunately the game's lighting was not sufficient to mask them like it was in SOMA. Strange how SOMA looks superior in pretty much every way to this game despite being much older.

Also I am simply not a fan of the setting. Daylight and sand dunes do not make me scared, nor do dark dystopian sci-fi environments. I feel like the Doom Slayer should be rounding the corner any moment with a super shotgun.

If you want to criticize the fact I only played an hour and a half, let me just counter you by saying that both The Dark Descent and SOMA had an absolutely excellent first hour beginning segment and manage to scare you quite thoroughly and set the tone masterfully despite there being no true danger until much later. So this game failed to give me any vibes of horror and I have lost all hope of improvement when the game forces upon me jumpscares and QTEs as a result of the fear system to set the tone that the first game's sanity system did much better with its manipulation of the screen and controls.

I don't care what you think of horror games, but using jumpscares as part of a main game mechanic you can't do all that much to prevent is an unbelievably amateur move by Frictional. Am I to fear the monsters and environment, or the flashing face and loud noise popping up on my screen if I don't light a match every now and then? Why should I fear death when my character just reappears somewhere else, fully healed after doing a QTE? The fear system becomes a chore to manage, thanks in large due to how worthless matches are and how you spend most of your time lighting lamps just to avoid the jpeg jumpscares. I read that the lantern is somehow even worse—I won't be finding out.

Biggest gripe might be the fact my main character seems to be suffering from some sort of permanent manic disorder coupled with Tourette's syndrome, or perhaps she is a politician, or streaming live on Twitch, because she always feels the need to fill the room with her swears, pointless squabble and immediate thoughts about how weird or surprising everything in her current vicinity is. Is this Tomb Raider or is this Amnesia? Can Tasi shut up for five minutes!?

When did this become acceptable in first person horror games? I feel that SOMA did this perfectly; Simon would not speak during combat encounters, only opening up occasionally, mostly talking to another character to get his thoughts out before journeying into another horror segment. Frictional managed to almost perfect this before, so why the sudden shift into what is honestly very amateur in comparison? I can't really form a connection to the world and become immersed or freaked out when this woman's nonstop internal monologuing and overreaction to every small detail is doing all the work for me. She honestly could out-talk Nancy Drew.

But the actual problem with the story is the way they have done flashbacks in this version of Amnesia. This is red flag number 3, and at some point the constant interruptions to my gameplay with unskippable flashbacks that just stick a pencil drawing in my face to stare at for 15 seconds, and my character's unwelcome and annoying manic speech habits to the point I tuned her out, combined with the heavyhanded approach to storytelling via constant exposition dumps and fully voiced notes that are everywhere, ruined it for me.

I just feel more annoyed to have to sit through this game than interested. I wasn't have any fun whatsoever.

If the objective was to make one of the most dull and insulting 'horror' experiences I've ever played by constantly taking agency away from the player and having the main character essentially taking my own role away from me, then they nailed it. I don't frankly give a damn if the game ramps up the horror later on, because I can't do anything about the main character or the setting, which I kind of hate, nor can I fix my technical issues with the game's choppy framerate due to lack of 144 fps support.

I seriously have no interest in playing this again unless it goes on massive sale.

So that's my opinion. Loved Black Plague, TDD and SOMA. Massively put off by Rebirth, refunded it, no regrets.

You've been kicked out, and you're completely and utterly alone. All this game asks you to do is to manage to find employment while scrounging up £200 to afford to buy an apartment. Easy, right?

Spoiler alert: no. It isn't.

This game is "fun" in an unusual way. It's randomly generated, definitely winnable, and there are five different homeless you can play as. You must beg passerby's for dosh, constantly purchase (or shoplift) food, avoid the police, try not to be mugged, and most importantly, keep your happiness from reaching 0. Happiness can be thought of as a health bar, seeing as most negative events affect it and the game ends when it runs out. You must find shelter before 8pm each night or you miss the curfew and spend the night on the streets. You can drink a pint, smoke a pack, or take an illegal drug to keep your happiness up, but beware of addiction because withdrawal will end your game. Still, these tools can keep you from suicide, so it can be warranted to use them in an emergency. The ultimate goal is to be able to study enough to apply for jobs, then keep the job until you have enough money for an apartment, and having a job is required to win the game.

Maybe it could be considered a little discourteous or even privileged to play a game about surviving as a homeless person when you could walk outside and find an actual homeless person likely close by. But this game takes itself seriously, and isn't intended to be "entertainment" in the sense of wanting to make you somehow feel good about playing as a fictional hobo. It is satisfying to keep yourself alive in a similar way to how in The Long Dark it is satisfying to not freeze to death. I won't say this game is "punishingly difficult," but it does make you consider your actions and the priorities of trying to stay alive.

You also support charity by buying this.

Actively makes the game worse and more frustrating with time consuming and mostly useless espionage mechanics that require half a year of preparation just to give you a very slight bonus. Compliance in occupied territories almost impossible to manage properly, especially if you DON'T have this DLC, as you still have to manage Compliance but do not have access to spies. Who came up with this?

There is a horrific amount of micromanagement that does not feel worth it, arbitrary 2 spy limit for countries that are not a faction head while Britain can get half a dozen or more, more horrific focus tree balance by giving Spain more focuses than many other countries combined, arbitrary starting guarantees from democratic majors on practically every minor nation that makes early-game conquering sometimes impossible (for example as Romania), a lack of common sense, a lack of understanding of Hearts of Iron, a hatred of the playerbase, a hatred of fun, incompetence yet again from Paradox, overpriced, and I don't like it.

I am now considering playing only total overhaul mods until they fix it, because this is so unfun as to be practically unplayable.

I'm going to change this review to positive after re-playing it recently after 4 years since I made this review. I'm also keeping my old review intact below so you can understand what my complaints used to be. Now in beta, the game has finally included various QoL features like the quick-order TAB menu which addresses almost all of my concerns. It's still incredibly, *incredibly* buggy, but I now think it actually has enough content to warrant the purchase and also to be considered a worthy spiritual successor to the Silent Hunter series.

Below is my OLD REVIEW back when it was negative. These words no longer apply!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This game is not a sub sim, but rather The Sims in a submarine!

If you are like me and came from playing Silent Hunter, you might think this game is aspiring to become like the next game in that series. It is not remotely similar. Beware this game, for you will spend most of your time managing your crew, rather than your submarine. It is similar to managing a group of five childish morons in a submarine-shaped daycare, who have all forgotten how to do their jobs and must be coddled and given precise instructions for even the simplest of tasks.

Here's the one pro this game has: the graphics are really good when at sea. Probably the best I've seen. But that's the only pro I can really think of. There are a LOT of cons, including issues with the scale of the map versus the cities and feeling like you're playing on a 50 mile wide planet Earth, but that's besides my major point of this review.

If you enjoyed prowling the Atlantic or Pacific in a Silent Hunter game, confident in your ability to react to any threat on a moment's notice by raising the battle stations alarm and being able to press hotkeys to complete basic tasks such as manning your deck gun or AA cannon, diving to periscope depth, measuring depth under keel, telling your sonarman to report the nearest radio contact, sending contact reports via radio to the BdU, rigging for silent running, manning the attack periscope or observation periscope, turning off automatic battery recharging, or any other basic sub functionality, then you will be disappointed by what this game requires you to do instead.

Oh it still has most of that functionality, but only the ship's movement can be automated. Instead, for most tasks, you are given five officers to control, and in fashion similar to The Sims or This War of Mine, in a third person view that allows you to view most of the submarine's rooms from a side angle, you must click on one of your five individual officers and then click the object in question for them to interact with, then wait for them to slowly walk over to it and switch it on or off. For example, if you want to rig for silent running, you must click the light switch and switch it to blue. If you want depth under keel, you must click an officer and then click the echosounder and select the option to do a ping. If you want to activate the air compressor, you must click it and have an officer turn it on. There are no ways to automate these functions, as there are no buttons for them in the UI to order your crew to complete these tasks automatically.

This means that you are required to constantly pause the game and issue manual orders constantly, and cannot plausibly play this game in real-time during a combat scenario where every second counts.

Egregiously, there is no 'man the battle stations' button that I have found. An alert seems to be automatic based on when you enter combat. This means that your officers will spend most of their time napping, which prevents them from manning their stations if they are tired. You could be in the bay of Portsmouth, having just been spotted and desperately trying to dive, and there could be no-one around to turn the valve to flood the hull, and you get shot by the ships there simply because your crew were all asleep. You must manually wake them up for them to do their jobs. The frustration of watching my officers seemingly refuse to do their job at the most critical moment was the tipping point that made me stop playing and write this review.

I don't want to give the impression that I think manual control of your crew's functionality is bad. I actually really like the ability to yank one officer off of a certain post and put them where I think they'd be better suited, and I really like sub-compartment functionality and damage repair gameplay. Probably the coolest thing is sending divers to look for buried treasure in ships you sink, and let's be honest, this probably will be UBOAT's best feature when it's fully released!

But I refuse to play this any further until more automation is included and connected to a more fleshed out UI. Their roadmap does mention that they will include more automation in the future (Q 3-4 2020), so I will hold out until then.

Thumbs down for tediousness.

Absolutely the best financial investment I have ever made! Keep drinking that soda!