Recent reviews by Cafallingmoose

Should have left a good review prior to now. But I don't think there is any coming back up from this. I am disappointed in your actions Arrowhead / Sony. It is obvious what Sony is trying to do here and it reeks of the typical Sony BS. I'm sorry to say, I will not be coming back.

Edit: Can't make this ♥♥♥♥ up... Not even an hour after I dropped my opinion, they doubled down in the discord. Saying "We made an FAQ about how to do it!"
No. I do not trust Sony with anything related to my desktop.
No. I do not want to make and link an account.
I was hoping to be a life long fan but I can't support this corporate ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Edit Pt2: The wrongs have been made right.

Guys and Girls. Play it. Please.
To make this a comprehensive review, my 3 buddies and I have put in at least over 250 hours in our world. And goodness. We were all having a blast. The game dumps you in and gives you minimal guidance but always nudges you in the right direction. There are currently 5 bosses and each one feels impactful and have a clear cut purpose in defeating. The Combat in this game feels similar to a simpler souls-like game (I-frames on dodges; blocking; parrying; etc.) and death is something to insist on avoiding as it will directly effects your character. In this game you have a separate skill for everything. Similar to the Elder Scrolls Series, you level them up by doing/using those things. When you die, you lose levels in the skills you worked so hard to level. Luckily, armor, weapons, and certain other items are your true heavy hitters so losing all your levels to a persistent troll won't force you to start over or anything like that so long as you can still get your gear back. This is also why we only played together, it made the enemies harder but it made these RPG-esq skills feel more impactful when you formulate strategies around everyone's playstyles and skill sets. For example, I played more of a front-line/first-strike fighter. I focused on my bow, axe, and block skills and I was always stuck-in in our big battles. While I did that, my battle-buddy of our world would use the 2-handed polearm and throwable spears. He would focus on finding opportunities in a fight to land powerful blows while still maintaining a combat presence from a distance. Our other 2 took tower shields and were generally able to block any attack and acted as tanks. It was our skills that kind of defined our strategies and with that we all had a blast in every big battle, even if we got clapped by some...flying pests... Moving away from all that, it's survival gameplay is enjoyable for everyone. I would compare its survival to something like Minecraft on normal difficulty. No, starvation wont ever straight out kill you, but not eating can get you killed in fights as you'll have no stamina, health, or health regen to survive. No, you don't need to sleep, but if you don't, you take debuffs throughout the night. No, you dont need to drink water. Later on there are even potions that can instantly recover some of your health or supply you with certain damage resistances. And lastly... Lets talk about it's graphics... all I can truthfully say is, play the game. Not watch YT videos or looking at the screenshots. It's graphical prowess can not be fully appreciated until you are adventuring and you experience all the day/night changes first hand. You can never experience immersion through the eyes of someone else. It lends itself extraordinarily well to it's art style. And if you say "the graphics look so bad" as your reason to not get the game but you're still playing Minecraft, I think the whole Valheim community can agree with me here: Shut up and actually play it before judging it.

One last little send-off. If you buy the game because of my review, PLEASE don't look up how-to videos until you have explored EVERY single avenue available to you. A lot of the enjoyment for us was the feeling of finding things out; trying random things; and unlocking random crap as we continued to play through the game. Trust in the game's progression, it'll slowly and intentionally lead you forward.

Alright I have to admit. I enjoyed my play-through a lot. But i can see how this game might not be for some people. If you're not great at RTS's then this game will feel clunky and boring. You do not play this game to fly around and kill things. There are a lot of MOBAesc things about this game. The most enjoyment I got out of it was learning the best combos that my current squad and weapons allowed. On some upfront downsides; I did wish that throughout the game I could decide what and who to bring with me; the graphics were meh; and the lipsync was abysmal. One thing that really helped me enjoy the game as much as i did was because it was free. For it's price tag, I would have expected better and I would not have seen the good side of it. I would have likely only been looking for things to convince me to refund the game. However, I do still believe the game is an outstanding idea and i hope the developers know that. If you see this review, give it a try while it is free and please leave some more honest reviews.

So. To get this out of the way. If the game is not on sale like it is at the time of this review, then don't get it. (it is currently 80% off) I could not recommend this at it's normal price point. ESPECIALLY the DLC. Now that's out of the way, I have an absolute blast playing this game. There is something so satisfying about playing through this game and being able to look back at all you have done and tamed and see just how far you've actually come. Fair warning, there is A LOT you can do. So much so that come the end-game, if you skipped a smaller mechanic in the game such as farming, you'll think of it it as a chore and you'll struggle to care to do something so mundane. (Farming becomes a huge deal by the end of the game) What this game does right, is making everything you do have a noticeable outcome. Building a farm as mentioned makes your taming rates significantly better and quicker. Taming specific dinos that give buffs to the player or other dinos. Or taming some that are significantly more efficient at gathering the ores and building materials you'll need through your playthrough of the game. So now that I've gotten that D-sucking out of the way. Here's the Cons: Dino AI can be just straight dumb sometimes. The amount of times I cheesed a tame by getting it stuck in some closely packed trees is embarrassing. For tamed dinos, it's just as bad. Obviously if you're riding them you can tell the where to go and what to do, but any dinos following will get stuck behind the dumbest things. I can not tell you just how many times I was leading a congo line of dinos somewhere and unknowingly lost one somewhere in my 30 minute trek. There are a few irritating mechanics that do get in the way as well. Torpor is this games Achilles Heel. It supports the premise of this whole game but truly restricts some more meaningful tames. There are a few creatures that aren't tamed through knocking them out first but I would say at least 90% of the tames are based on this. I would like to see more taming methods and variety on this front. The amount of narcotics and tranq darts you need by endgame just get so ridiculous. The building mechanics as well. Holy Hell I have never played a game with more frustrating building mechanics. If you attempt to make a home that isn't just a box on some foundations, then you're in for a hell of a jigsaw puzzle. Mods can easily fix this however. On the note of modding, use them. I can't stress it enough. Mods will increase your enjoyment as well as smooth out the rough edges the vanilla game has. And best of all they are free and the easiest thing to install through the steam workshop. After all of this, I would highly recommend this game for any group of friends looking for something to waste away in while they're bored.

Gameplay is S Tier. Bugs are also S Tier. You decide.

A tough game to jump into even for a lot of strategy experts. But after a few KIA's and failed missions the game becomes clear and its the most rewarding feeling to come back from the dirt and actually start your win streaks. The constant timer ontop of your head keeps a constant looming game-ending condition. This mechanic is rarely used but the implementaion of it is flawless as it keeps your goal in sight and makes you actually think of your next moves rather than just hitting the missions that give resources 24/7. This game is punishing if you are poor at strategy games so i would not recommend this game if turn-based strategies dont interest you very much as the learning curve is rather large. I've replayed the normal campaign 3 times through and im currently on my first playthrough of Long War 2 (a free steam workshop mod). I would also like to commend Firaxis for providing the opportunity for modders to alter the game and fine tune a few mechanics as well as add new classes and fun modification. I think Firaxis can take a lot from the modding community and as far as I've seen, the modding community is very open about adding their mods to the vanilla game to allow console players to enjoy. The combat isnt like your intense first person shooters. A lot more thought goes into doing something as simple as moving a soldier. Could he make a flanking shot on an enemy? Would it kill the enemy? Would he be susceptible to a flank? Could he get better cover? Does he need to move right this second? After a while you create different methods of analyzing sitautions, like when a soldier is in danger or when a devestating counterattack presents itself. I did feel like the variety of enemies could have been improved a bit more but thankfully a million different mods can fill that blank easily. The same goes for the weaponry and armor. There are three tiers for each kind of gun and the armors. There are also a few special armors you can get but I felt they were underwhelming in most situations. But again, mods can fix this. And lastly, the story. Sadly it wasnt anything apalling but I felt like it was more there just to add to the feeling of how it's you versus the world (literally). My final opinion is that without a doubt I am fully in love with this game. It has massive replay value (I have 215 hours into this game) and the combat truly keeps me on my toes and constantly engaged. And with the announcement of their new huge DLC coming out in August despite already being a year and a half old, I wanted to share my opinion to make sure no strategy gamers miss out on this great game.

I know that this game looks very intimidating. I thought the same thing at first. But after tinkering with it for a while and mastering all aspects of the game, I have grown to honestly fall in love with this game. And this mod community is like no other. Please just try this beautiful game before marking it off. The ratings speak for themselves!!!