Recent reviews by WiseWhiteWolf

I now can happily say this version is good again, and worth the buy. See update directly below as to why. (Keeping old review text for historic reasons :o )

***Update: Audio issues are fixed, to a point. Sound quality is back to being same as old CD sound quality. They have fixed bugs which made some weapons not have reload sounds, they now do. They also have made the texture scaling work better, so textures, most noticable on walls with text, and on computer panels, electrical panels etc look a LOT sharper with easily noticeable detail.. no longer a blurry mess now.

STILL MISSING SURROUND SOUND BUT I'll take these improvements, as it makes the game better.. Old mod for surround sound currently doesn't work anymore since the update that fixed the things listed above.

Love the game, but I do not reccomend this or source version. Source has bugs and lighting issues, while this has horrible audio issues that they refuse to fix. And.. they caused the audio issues in the first place.


I own the old GOTY Half-Life disc and reinstalled after thinking 'I do not remember the sounds and voices being this terrible". I tested this way.

The game itself is very good, sure all have heard and know, but I am only writing this to point out the very, VERY evident sound problems in this version since Valve removed EAX and A3D audio options/software.

Without these in game for sound, everything sounds lower quality and 'tinny'. Reverb is very bad when compared to old disc versions of game and also it isn't as accurate at decipering left and right audio channels and kind of just.. mixes them. It works, kind of, but not as accurate as the retail disc versions (or pre 2013 steam updates).

Gunshots, voices, steps echoing in halls, vents, corridors etc all sound more natural in old... along with ambience. Current steam version it sounds very forced and harsh. Like it was just amplified for the sake of being amplified which in turn makes it sound distorted as well. Which I'm sure is due to them removing some of the ways the audio worked in the first place (Valve removing EAX and A3D audio options which were included on retail disc)


TL:DR Sound is VERY low quality when compared to old versions (disc and pre 2013 update that removed EAX and A3D audio options). Play old versions if you can by all means, it'll play and sound a lot better.


Valve.. please add back EAX and A3D audio options.

It is extremely dissapointing to have to go back and play from my old disc instead of my steam copies because, the people who made the game, botched the audio so bad that it actually hurts my ears a bit.


Please valve :)


Thank you for finally fixing some of these issues, Valve.

Updating for new users: Fromsoftware is refusing (or EXTREMELY incompetent to fix) a massive exploit that a hacker can use to gain control/brick your hardware etc.

Servers ARE NOT ONLINE. Multiplayer IS NOT POSSIBLE at the time.

It has been well near 2 weeks now with no updates.

Elden Ring will have this same issue.

Do not give this company a dime. They do not deserve it.



...Eh.

Thats how I feel about this. (And YAY FOR THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF BUGS THAT DEVS NEVER FIX WOOO (See cons list for what I mean)

I loved 1 and 2.. This? It seems like they keep travelling further away from what made the others good, but I can't put my finger on what.. Oh, wait. It's not trying to make anything difficult in the sense of tactical. This installment is all 1 shots and every mob hits for a hell of a lot. (I played all games, I know all have 1 shot mechanics and hard hitting mobs, but this 1 kind of puts the icing on the stale cake by making most mechanics in it either 1 shot, stunlock, or just "...what?" moments)

Short pros and cons.

Pro:
Still great level design, fun to explore and exploring is still rewarding in a lot of aspects.
Same 'ol controls.
...Thats all I really have as pros compared to the other 2 game which have a lot more.

Cons:
-Lack of depth to combat. Very simple and mobs can be cheesed almost in the same way through most of the game. (See AI comment below)

-Even more broke multiplayer (somehow) I got and stayed connected in co op /PvP MORE in the other 2 games steadily than this 1 that has DEDICATED SERVERS. (Que the "Failed to join session" spam cause FROM sucks at any networking and gets worse each game imo)
---Regards to multi: No soul memory means to newcomers constant losers gank camping low zones with maxed estus (potions basically) to heal themselves for 3x more than the newbie can even do, let alone that loser also has 1 shotting weps or the like. Granted, these losers usually depend on 1 gimmick to get kills BUT its severely boring and annoying to kill them due to how long it takes because of the estus abuse and poor matchmaking in this regard.
----No way to play just with friends. Sometimes you just want to PvE with a buddy and drink or something. Can't have that, soon as you group you get spam invaded. A lot.


YOU WILL GET GHOST HIT CONSTANTLY DUE TO BAD SERVERS. I.E. someone 20 ft away hits you multiple times with a shortsword/dagger and you cannot even try to fight due to this.


-Same, oddly, even 'dumber' ai. I seriously don't get how the AI gets worse as the series goes on.. I should say "lack of" AI honestly, All mobs act very brain-dead to a lot. Every mob can be cheesed easily and they never learn or try to advance/counter. They repeat the same 1-3 moves and thats it.

-Same, dumb backstab mechanic. I honestly hate this. It isn't engaging to just circle around mobs to fish for a backstab.. and it works on nearly all the mobs in the game. Tactical depth? Nope. Do 1 thing and win game? Yep

-a LOT of invisble walls when trying to shoot with arrows/projectiles. Some stairs have giant invsible walls in between the railings, some don't when they have VERY little spacing on the railing. Some railings that have no room to actually shoot though you can shoot through... see my point here?

-Pretty bad hitreg/hitboxes. Multi is the worse with hitreg. The hitboxes are laughable, I see people praise them but I honestly don't get it. There are some mobs in the game you can literally hit in the head/arm with a arrow, have said arrow stick to them like it hit, and just not do dmg. Then you proceed to try shooting their toe and it works. Wtf?
Also, related to mob AI. Do the lie down emote in front of some mobs, and see how many can just never hit you cause they can't aim down at all or anything. Sigh

- A lot of unviable weapons for builds they are suited for. (IE FTH weps being better as hybrid weps or just used on a pure STR char for some reason.) Higher lvl and upgrades may fix this, but I'm bored to tears to bring myself to play this anymore.

-Again, AI. Some mobs literally spam 1 move only.

BUGS!

When I got this I had to spend literal HOURS figuring out why it was only running BELOW 30 FPS and struggling to hit even 30. (I have a 1600x and a 1080Ti)

Turning graphic settings off or ultra didn't change FPS, Vsync options etc, nothing. Fiddling with settings in Nvidia control panel couldn't fix it. 1 day when I launched it randomly worked at 60 FPS. Stil have no idea how it randomly started working.

FPS/Controller lock and controller FPS drop bug
-IF I plg in my controller BEFORE or AFTER launching, the game stutters terribly and struggles to maintain 30FPS.
The ONLY fix I found for this that works all the time is having my controlelr plugged in BEFORE booting my PC up


I literally can't play the game at 60 FPS unless .. I have..
Controller plugged in BEFORE powering on PC

What the ♥♥♥♥, From. Never had issues like this with other 2.

While I loved the previous 2, I can't even begin to suggest picking this up. It has some charm, but I can't even bring myself to want to beat it anymore.

Its boring, unimaginitive in regards to combat/AI (somehow dumber AI) and just.. cringy with the FPS bugs I run into.

A terrible Left 4 Dead clone with bad AI and very lackluster melee combat. (Has ranged combat, but about pointless besides headshotting special 'rats' that have bad AI as is so you can cheese em with melee anyway so who cares!

I honestly dont get HOW this has good reviews.

1. AI is TERRIBLE on both your allies AND 'rats'. I had multiple occasions where the AI will either A) stand and watch me or another ally be attacked (keep in mind, this is when NO OTHER enemies are there besides the few on me) and do nothing, literally, until you/they die and they get hit.. THEN they counter.
--They also constantly SIT in poison gas. As do enemy rats, killing themselves.
--Will try to facetank the 'tanks' and die horribly. 6 times I encountered one, all allies alaways did this.
Other things I dont feel like typing.

Normal hordes beeline for you, none ever seem to try to flank you really, so you can always dispatch easy if you just backpedal. (Specials never try to flank either, nor really move. See below)

Special rats are a joke.
---Chaingunner will never move once they start firing from my experience.. so this means you can trigger them and wall hump a cheap headshot, or just run away behind a tiny block of cover cause you know, they never move NOR do they know how to aim up. Meaning, that tiny block of cover that is about as high as your chest maybe? Will never hit you. Wtf?
-- Poison bombers (spitters) kind of share the same behaviour. They are slow as ♥♥♥♥, take about 6 seconds to throw 1 bomb and.. due to slowness they don't reposistion to counter you running back.
--Assassians (hunters). Almost every one I encountered waited until I stared at them for a few seconds to jump on me, usually they run up to me and attack normally a bit allowing me to kill them before even being a threat.

Above applies to all other specials I'm too lazy to write in.

2. No feasable solo play on hard or above. No matter how good you are, you almost constantly get screwed by your horrid AI friends soon as you get to an objective where you have to move/deliver things.. cause they don't, and they let themselves get surrounded and ya know, don't like to move or swing randomly at times for a while.

3. Matchmaking seems.. broke? I tried finding people for randoms and certains missions for over 20ish mins, only ever found 1 person for 1 map. Game that dead? Wouldn't surprise me.

4. Grind. Grind. Grind.
I hope you like repeating the same map over and over to hope for a somewhat better sword/bow/whatever just so you can can try a higher difficulty cause making them basically gated between a horrid RNG loot system that you can't only get items for the class you want, is good right?
No. It waste ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time and makes you unable to play on hardest modes CAUSE you can't get lucky with the VERY slow gear grind.

5. Gear.. see above, is horribly implemented. They use it as a mechanic to make you play longer, not to really diversify it doesn't seem like, but to mainly lock out doing higher modes NO MATTER HOW GOOD YOU ARE unless you spend an insane amount of time farming.

6.. Combat. My GOD the combat is horrible. The melee doesn't feel like it has weight to it, and this game FOCUSES on melee almost exclusively.

Its a mindless hack and slash against most mobs. Sit and spam mouse click, win. Not even joking, even on hard.

Oh wait, all maps I played look boring as ♥♥♥♥. I get it may be the style, but almost everything is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grey

Wait, no light/torch either, and unless you pump up your gamma it may be hard to see in the massive grey blobs that are the maps I played on.


Do yourself a favor and get Left 4 Dead 2, you can actually do hard modes with the AI, don't have to grind mind numbing easy difficulties to get gear to do harder modes, AND workshop support that has SO MUCH MORE you can do.

Not to mention I constantly find people playing and find matches easy. This? Nope. Which makes it hard to progress.

**********UPDATED******* Found fix for my constant crashing issue! Thanks for the help guys, least it was 1 of the simple things that fixed it. lol

-Was as simple as disabling ALL forms of Vsync (in game and forcing it off in AMD Radeon settings.
-I have a 75hz monitor, so I also had to force (in Radeon settings) to put a FPS cap of 60 on this. Running it over 60 FPS causes instabilities Iguess.

This game is a small gem though. I love and adore the Half-Life series and this I feel is very true to how it would actually be as an RTS.

That being said, it's not without its flaws/bugs. But I am enjoying its story, nonetheless, seeing more (not badly done) Half Life content is always a plus!

Pros

-Sticks to lore very well. All events and troops etc are lore friendly, fit well and execute well together.

-Story: The few singleplayer missions there are, I really like. They fit the feeling and are fun to do (until difficulty becomes stupid - see cons)

-Simple RTS. I view this as a positive since some RTS's have so much units, counters, research etc that make it a chore for newcomers to try, let alone manage all the different units into counter groups, make them fight effective units (you get my point I think)
Has a handful of units that are very clear what their good at, and when you have them fight what they aren't ment to counter, they still do decent, not just instantly die horribly like other more complex RTS's.

-Vort antlion spam. Best defense/harrasment ever and very satisfying. xD


Cons

-Difficulty.
Good luck beating any of the story missions on Normal or Hard (aside from 1st mission). The AI will rush you fast with very powerful units before you even can get 1-2 control points OR have enough time to even get some troops trained to counter them. It's.. kind of insane. It sucks, since having it on Easy makes them nearly ever attack you. Granted, this is more of a multiplayer mod it seems which dissapoints me.. I love the 3 missions I've done so far in singleplayer and hope to see more along with the AI modified for Normal/Hard.

-Buuugs.
Enemy units like to sometimes teleport below ground, where they can attack you and your buildings, but you can't touch them, even with explosives. This is remedied by having 1 weak troop stand on top of the stuck unit, then they just dance with each other never shooting. lol

-Troop AI needs improvement on grouping/pathing. Lot of times mine would keep running straight into my turrets and take sometimes a full minute to correct themselves and try to walk around the side of it.
(This also causes a lot of issues trying to get out of AoE attacks fast. Hard to do because of this. It is also insanely hard to make all units stay in defensive spots and not move, and next to impossible to make them all sit in a building together after having very few in it.)

-No way to save your game. At all.


Most of my complaints are things that can be fixed with polishing it up (mostly - I hope they get more campaign missions and a save feature) So, it isn't bad.

I am hopeful for this and hope it fleshes out into a good game, and maybe moved to a better engine (if possible) to allow for steamworks mod support.. That would breathe a lot of good life into this I feel.


I just hope it doesn't crash constantly for whoever reads this and tries.. but, least you can try my solution if it does!

Not anywhere NEAR worth of a 60 price tag.

Lets start with the bad.
1 Peer to peer connection mean 1 person has bad ping, whole match sucks. People constantly dip in and out due to this, and this PAUSES the entire match, and sometimes ports you into death when it comes back.

2. Very unbalanced classes. Some require absolutly no kill (AKA Berserker can still spam fast light attacks when out of stam and knock you down WITHOUT HAVING REVENGE UP). Some have a dumb amount of invicibility frames after dodging, to the point they are now standing still at the end of it AND standing, yet, your attack will buzz through their body cause reasons as they are now swinging at you.

-I swear every viking I met just spams throws or stuns and nothing else. You can counter this, but, once you get thrown into a wall it is hard to get out of it and they can just spam the stun again and again since it takes hardly any stamina

3. Very steep learning curve. Look up videos on how to do some of the moves, the moveset in the menus sucks. Some it doesnt even state that buttons need to be pressed at the same time viceversa. Its horrid and no wonder so many get mad because it isnt working even though they do what is in the moveset cause... its just wrong on some moves. Point blank.

4. This game freezes on everything.

It'll freeze when you click matchmaking
When you are looking at scoreboard after a match
When finishing a match
When going into any menu
When trying to leave a match full of mainly bots

Literally, everything causes this to freeze and force a CTRL ALT DELETE response.

This wouldn't be a problem for a BETA.. but

THIS GAME RELEASES IN 3 DAYS FROM WHEN I WROTE THIS! IT IS BROKE, AND ITS NO EXCUSE TO BE THIS BAD NEAR RELEASE.

4. Lack of maps and gamemodes

5. No team balancing

6. Some classes can sit and spam light attacks all day eerryday on some classes and win, even if they parry and deflect them because the recovery animation for doing a successful parry/pushaway (deflect may be the term?) is longer for the person DEFLECTING than the person you are DEFLECTING FROM. So it has no point against some, since you do it, which takes precise timing, to then just be screwed over because they recover faster than you so you can never counterattack when you do a move that the game states..

that is allows a guarenteed counter.

7. 1 class has almost all unblockable moves. I'm not even kidding, its straight retarded to have that, especially for how easy it is to execute, you can SPAM unblockable attacks, and when playing a heavy or.. not an assassian like type, its very very hard to avoid


Pros:

1 Runs.. ok. I cant fix screen tearing even with Vsync at different settings, freesync etc. Its not terrible but its there and I cant fix it. Maybe vsync option in game is broke? AMD control panel forcing it on doesnt do sqat either so I believe its bad on Ubi's end (no surprise)

I have an i7 6770k and 2 Fury X's, 16GB 1886 or whatever ram.

Protip: disable reflections. They murder framerate and frametiming

2. Has a lot of potential.. IF they will fix it. With these massive amount of technical issues I doubt it'll happen in time, which is ridiculous.

3. Would be amazing if they fix some broken mechanics on some classes.

4. Feels very rewarding when you have a good, non gank, actual cool fight. But that hardly happens. In 1v1s most people just sit at a ledge and wait for you to come there to risk getting thrown off.
I've had this happen an insane amount of times, to the point the match times out cause they never move.

Game needs to be called No Honor, since it has no matchmaking/team balancing,


Oh another con
the higher lvl (2+bots) will murder you. Depending on the class, they will never miss a block, parry, feint etc. you literally can't even feint the bots, since they just aimbot track every move you do. This is very lazy on Ubi's end, and makes for matches against AI and human mix a living hell depending what bot they do get.

Incoming 'git gud' comments: I do well, have a 2.0 KD ratio and have held my own and killed a lot of high ranks. But, I have good reaction times. If I didn't, I couldnt play the class I do and would need to play a cheese class like any of the Vikings.

Game has a lot of potential, I am having fun when I dont run into idiots and the peer to peer actually works, but it has a lot of balancing issues AND REALLY bad technical issues.

3 days till release.

No excuse Ubi.

This is not worth $60 on any planet, I will only pick this up on a sale for 30 or less if I do. For a triple AAA game, this has more issues than any game I ran into, even the early access ones I've played.

Fix it

The game that made me question my country and government. (lol)
If you can get past the old graphics (Which I frankly love), I'd say give this a shot.

The game is set up around real-world governement conspiracy theories, which makes it all the more interesting, about groups like MJ-12, the Illuminati, etc and how the play their "secret hand" in the decisons that are ultimately made by all governments. It even goes deep with rumors as to what is actually happening at Area 51 based off of what has been found so far by the populace and leaked.

The combat style is old school (Game is from like 2000, don't expect stuff from Metro etc.) and the AI can be pretty funny at times, not to mention the voice acting on some of the forign charecters will make you laugh to no extent, but thats since they used who produced it to do the voice acting since they didn't have enough to hire etc.
And it does take some getting use to, you have your skills. (Heavy Weps, Small Arms, Knives, Hacking/Computers, Swimming etc) and you level them up by spending points you get for progression through the games storyline and by completing side missions and finding little secret areas in game. accuracy is debated by how long you let the reticle focus in on your crosshair, if its far from it, you will likely miss, as to the oppisite, you'll hit directly where you're looking at. Higher your skill with that said wep, faster it closes in for that accurate shot.

You can mod your weapons, and this has the oh so great augmentation of your char. (Such as cloak, spybot, Aqualung, Ballistic Shield etc) to make you be able to play this silent in the shadows, or the brute who goes out blasting (If you try to be the brute against bots.. Well, I'll let you learn yourself. Same with commandos :) )

This game is linear, to a point. But the enviroments are huge, with lots of hidden secrets. What you do drastically changes others views on you, and how the story progresses. Some events happen no matter what, but most can be changed and affected by you.

My opinion? A must play. The story in this is comparable to none in terms of depth, immersion, and wanting you to re-play to see what would've happened if you chose a different solution. I can't tell you how many times I've replayed this since honestly I lost count. This game never ceases to bore me, I somehow always get sucked in to it because of the amazing stories in it.

The combat though not sounding exciting, fits this game very well. It takes getting use to, but it is very damn fun.

Oh, fun fact. Example of some of the insane weapons in this game: A grenade that turns robots AI against their opponents. This effect persist throughout that whole level, HR it did not. You can also hack terminals and turn turrets onto your side as well. Very, very fun for setting up traps or making a group of people just go cray from their turret randomly opening fire on them. xD

Oh, also. This beats Human Revolution by far.. I enjoyed it, but this is soo much better. You may not think so, but the story and gameplay in this (FOR ITS TIME) was too damn good to ignore. HR's is predictable and not really dependent on choice, instead of the illusion that you have an impact on the actual ending.. this doesn't have the illusion, it impacts.

Must try, you won't regret it.