Recent reviews by Katsu

A welcome addition to turn-based tactics, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint puts you into the combat boots of a 23rd century cyborg mercenary and their merry band of misfits, all fully customizable in their looks and style whilst representing archetypical classes such as hackers, snipers and close combat monsters. Multiclassing further allows to mix and match abilities from different trees, allowing players to create hybrid types like stealth soldiers or to just minmax by doubling down on useful bonuses.

With its dystopian setting and turn-based gameplay, CKF can hardly avoid comparisons to Harebrained's Shadowrun Returns series or Cliffhanger's sadly defunct Shadowrun Chronicles multiplayer game, but whilst the former still deliver a more gripping narrative and the latter had its fun cooperative aspect going for them, Cyber Knights blows both out of the water in terms of combat depth and replayability, owing to more complex movement, response and matrix mechanics as well as built-in procedural mission generation. Even at the game's current state with the campaign unfinished, it's a fun thing to pick up again every now and then whenever you feel like rushing a team of runners through a dystopian killzone.

Unusual for this genre is the successful merger of stealth and combat gameplay and the organic transition between the two, with a great amount of detail affording a realistic security response: Rather than cheating with omniscient awareness of the position of your mercs, guards first investigate disturbances and gradually dispatch backup to the source of a report, which ideally is not your team's current position anymore. Tricking cameras, hiding corpses, sneaking and hacking are all valuable tools to delay The Man coming down on you hard. At the same time, "going loud" remains an option from the very first turn, expanding on the ways you can approach a mission.

CKF is still in Early Access, but thanks to its solid gameplay foundation already great fun to play for fans of cyberpunk atmosphere and turn-based tactics. As a Trese Brothers game, it has an unusually fast-paced update cycle with the regular addition of or expansion on features on top of expected bugfixes. Any gamers who might still hesitate out of fear the game might just cease development halfway through just needs to take a look at their previous title, Star Traders: Frontiers, which was released in 2018 but has just received Update #342(!) in March 2024.

I wish I could recommend this game, as it clearly has potential -- but what might have been a rough gem just has too many edges where inexplicable design decisions interfere with seamless fun.

Starting with the good, BGP can be a fun action game combining serviceable combat mechanics with colorful anime aesthetics generally good character design. The voice acting is top notch and the actors are a perfect fit for each of the protagonists.

The characters' sexualization may be more than questionable, especially when we're getting to non-consensual "Intensive Drilling", a game element that, due to its use of playful/innocent toys rather than actual BDSM gear, feels weirdly stuck between cartoony playfulness and outright smut, as if the game does not know which of the two it wants to commit to, and as if molesting someone in tentacle bondage gets any more okay just because you're using a "magical mushroom" instead of a dildo.
I also have a hard time believing the game's lip-service disclaimer that everyone is over the age of 18 when we're talking about a bunch of school girls -- but obviously, for most people interested in a title like this, that is exactly what they are looking for. :p

Unfortunately, whatever fun one may get out of this game - and it clearly has its moments - is repeatedly hobbled by needlessly frustrating design, such as a lack of checkpoints even during missions consisting of multiple levels, or that the game will throw you back into camp every time you die instead of allowing you to simply reset the encounter. This is annoying as, in spite of its rather simplistic graphics, the game takes forever to load the levels. Having to spend what feels like a minute in a loading screen just to retry a boss is vexing, especially as a lot of deaths will occur to stuff like getting stunlocked by a dozen enemies that enjoy infinite respawns. Annoyingly, it is also not possible to heal your NPC Buddies, and they will ignore any health potions just like they will ignore you going down, instead of resurrecting you like you can do with them.

If this game had co-op like the Earth Defense Force series, which is from the same publisher (both games even feature collaboration DLC from each other), many of these flaws would be negligible as combat would be a lot easier, but when you have to rely on a single NPC Buddy whose AI is as limited as this game's budget must have been, the fights surely feel a lot harder than they ought to be.

Oh yeah, and did I mention this is a PC port that lacks "luxury" features such as mouse control in its menus and makes long range aiming with a sniper rifle feel atrociously jerky?

Summary:

+ cute character designs with excellent voice acting
+ wide selection of fun weapons, from firearms and missile launchers to swords and bows
+ cliché story is saved by entertaining dialogue between the protagonists

- no checkpoints even in long missions, any death = back to mission screen
- extremely limited AI companions that do not heal and only use basic attacks of their #1 weapon
- suboptimal UI design (especially inventory management) that additionally suffers from lack of mouse
- bland skilltree that is bad to navigate and feels more like a tacked-on chore

Missed opportunity. 6/10 Panties.
Maybe get it on a sale, but be prepared for frustrating moments.

Even a year after it's "controversial" launch and after a host of patches and hotfixes, CP2077 is still a glitchy game. However, it is now definitely playable, and able to show its strengths without some bug ruining the experience for you time and again. Having watched friends play when the game was first released, I have a pretty good idea of how bad it could be, and I'm happy to report that the developers seem to have fixed the most notorious issues.

You will still encounter stuff like your parked car occasionally floating a meter above ground, or mission NPCs rubberbanding throgh the scenery as they walk down waypoints, or enemies teleporting/spawning into corners right behind you -- and most notably, the entire police system is still a bolted on, half-finished husk of a gameplay mechanic. However, bugs are far less numerous, and far less likely to kick you out of enjoying the story. Design flaws include an MMO-esque item progression, ability unlocks focusing too much on boring number crunch (e.g. 10 different perks that essentially all do "+damage"), or a food/drink system that functions like mana pots and feels both redundant (negligible benefits completely overshadowed by stims) and out of place (zero animation).

What ultimately saves the game in its current state: the characters, the meticulously animated narrative, and perhaps most importantly Night City itself are all very well done and come together to create an immersive, atmospheric cyberpunk experience where you can easily lose hours feeling like in a movie, or even just driving through the city at night enjoying how much the rain adds to the scenery.

The game still has much potential for improvement, beginning with its at best lackluster, at worst actively unfair police system, all the way down to various setting-relevant yet missing clothes that were once advertised but never materlaized for player characters. But, you can have a great time with the game as it is now, and historically, the developer seems to curate its products over a prolonged time. Though work on CP2077's next patch has been scaled back, we now know that an expansion is in the works.

Given how much polish the game is missing even today, and that the game clearly could've used another year in full development rather than incremental tinkering on a live product, it may not be worth the original full price -- although this is a sentiment born mostly from me wanting to express dissatisfaction with the rushed state of the game and lack of quality for a €€$60 product. Going purely by hours of gameplay fun, CP2077 is clearly a winner, so if you can grab it even for just 20% off, I'll gladly recommend doing so.

Summary

• Gameplay: 8/10 -- a solid foundation held back by some weird 1990s MMORPG ideas
  
• Customization: 6/10 -- disappointing lack of fashion options, visual cyberware, barber shops
  
• Story: 8/10 -- a gripping cyberpunk narrative with fun side stories, excellent use of characters
  
• Visuals: 9/10 -- beautiful level design with attention to detail
  
• Quality: 7/10 -- playable, but still awkward for what marketing presented as a Triple-A product

Result: 8 out of 10 cybereyes

After many, many years of Battletech pseudo-groundedness, I've recently gotten into the mood for something more Macross-y and started looking for suitable games, of which there seem to be precious few on Steam. Of all the ones I looked at, DxM stood out both thanks to its intense visuals as well as the range of features it offers -- ranging from extensive pilot customization (preventing you from yet again being locked into playing some stereotypical dude a la MW5), to online coop gameplay (allowing you to enjoy the game with your friends), to gameplay features like throwing cars or disembarking your mecha that are almost silly in how inconsequential they are yet so very, very much appreciated for how well they fit to the genre. In other words, options that may not be considered necessary at first glance, but surprisingly important just for giving you so much more freedom to enjoy the game.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1751329596246969733/82E8178987CFFD8EB7138B1143E4F5783B84BCE0/

Aside from missing collaboration DLCs, the one downside that needs mentioning is that this game is, of course, a Switch port. Don't get me wrong, they've certainly upped the graphics and the actual combat controls are smooth as butter even if you're playing with mouse and keyboard (as one does). Out of combat, however, you've got the usual console relic of buttonmashing through countless menus and sub-menus, which really doesn't feel very elegant especially considering how many there are. Mouse implementation in the UI would have been very much appreciated, and hopefully, praise the steel, will find its way into the planned sequel.

Still, the horrible menus do not take away from the excellent combat action, and whilst the story seems a bit difficult to get into at first, Marvelous did some really cool worldbuilding here, creating the perfect basis for the player to act as a freelance mercenary who gets to interact with a host of other mercs, sometimes as an ally, other times as opponent. Many of the characters - most of them belonging to teams with such colorful names as Bulletworks or Panzer Crown - are walking tropes, but this only makes the game feel even more "anime", so if you want to feel like you're in the midst of some Gundam show, DxM has got you covered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-5itq7L87Y

Recap:

+ Solid, high-octane action gameplay
+ Captures the "anime show" feeling well, thanks to its cast of characters and cutscene directing
+ Lots of mecha customization (no Armored Core, but it's enough)
+ Character customization that'd make even some MMO RPGs envious
+ Optional Coop and PvP modes .. if you can find someone to play them with

- Clunky console port UI
- Lack of promo DLCs (in theory you might be able to mod them in)
- Glowy "Femto" resource on maps devalues otherwise gritty post-apoc environments

Conclusion: Get Into the Damn Robot/10

An action-packed shooter for you and up to two friends that's surprisingly addictive in spite of its flaws.

Gameplay-wise, the action feels very arcade, but thanks to the level design and sound effects suitable for the IP. It is kind of a pity that Insane Difficulty, which would make the game feel a lot more dangerous and tactical, is only unlocked after you've finished the campaign. Likewise, one negative point is arguably how specialist classes have been made less important by making various abilities (welding open doors, setting up a sentry turret, reviving a downed squadmate) available to everyone instead of making class choice and team composition more critical to mission success. Having the Doc's trauma station run out of juice without being able to self-recharge, whilst other marines keep finding first aid kits to self-heal throughout a mission, just feels like bad design.

Customization - certainly one of the long term motivators considering the unlocks acquired by playing and replaying missions - is present but could surely be enhanced. For example, it is possible to put decals on guns but not your armor. Likewise, hats and accessories share the same slot, so you'll have to decide between cowboy hat and sunglasses; it's not possible to equip both. Lastly, in spite of each class having its own progression track, the game does not allow you to actually play different *characters*, i.e. you cannot have, say, an Asian female Technician and a White male Doc on your roster; if you change the looks for one class, you change it for all. Having the game default to your Steam name rather than allowing character names is also somewhat unimmersive.

In spite of the above criticism, the game is a blast for anyone who enjoys a good coop experience a la Left4Dead. Time will tell just how much replayability is in the campaign levels or the wave-focused Horde mode, but at the same time, the game presents a solid foundation upon which the developer could easily expand with DLC and expansions.

Verdict: "Look lady, I just have one question ... where they are"/10

At first glance, it might seem like a controversial design choice to not only combine "cutesy" anime visuals with a WW2 narrative, but on top of that even let you play as the Germans. However, in an example of anime being quite capable of telling serious stories, the game does treat its setting with the appropriate gravitas. Your Wehrmacht tank crew consists not of indoctrinated zealots nor clueless puppets, but rather everyday people who just happened to find themselves born into the wrong side of the war, quite similar to the characters from the famous submarine movie Das Boot. Though proud of their skills and dedicated to fighting for their fatherland, they are ultimately mere cogs in the German war machine, adrift in the current of history as the European conflict unfolds, and as the war drags on just hoping to get home again in one piece.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2498705916
The game tells (some of) the events of WW2 in the European theater, following the characters' exploits from the Polish campaign to sunny France to snowy Russia. You can actually learn quite a bit of history here, although some of it is filtered through the eyes of the "boots on the ground", who do not have all the information. The most obvious example is the true cause of the war, presented as Polish aggression -- though some of the characters are smart enough to question the official story, wondering how their enemies can be so unprepared. One character also expresses dismay about the activities of the notorious Einsatzgruppen, but is of course quickly shut up by a superior. At the very least, the game's dialogue might be enough to get people interested in reading more about the war, whilst doing a good job at lending personality to the different characters, making them relate- and likable in spite of who they're fighting for.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2498700098
In terms of gameplay, Panzer Knights feels like a hybrid between World of Tanks and War Thunder, sporting a healthy mix of arcade (self repair, component HP) and attention to detail (armor angles, location damage, destructable terrain). Depending on what you're driving and what is shooting at you, it is quite possible to get one-hit-killed by something like the KV-2's mighty 152mm gun punching a big hole into your PzIV, or be practically invulnerable as multiple lesser enemies' shots bounce harmlessly off your mighty Tiger's heavy plating. You not only get to unlock all sorts of famous Wehrmacht tanks but also "Beutepanzer" (that is, captured enemy vehicles), in addition to a sizable choice of characters to build your dream crew from. Though you can mix and match the characters as you wish, they all specialize in certain fields, represented by skills you can unlock and upgrade.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2498696896
The game's latent RPG elements also shine in the backgrounds and side stories you can unlock when playing certain missions with specific crew, highlighting friend- and relationships among the characters. This is sadly an underdeveloped aspect of the game, but it's enough to let you appreciate their individual personalities and, in doing so, helping to form a degree of attachment to the dramatis personae.

Of course, the game has a range of weak spots, most notable in a localization that could have really benefited from a native speaker. There are also many areas of the game that are full of unused potential, from your company's other vehicles feeling like an afterthought, to tanks not enforcing any "role slots" (e.g. driver, gunner, loader etc.) for their crew. Some missions are also quite long, and the lack of a checkpoint system can be quite frustrating when you fail close to the end and have to start again from the beginning.

Ultimately, however, the core gameplay is solid and the anime visuals look quite good. If you've enjoyed watching Girls und Panzer, you will feel right at home. I doubt the game will see expansions or a sequel, or even much post-release development save for maybe some bugfixes, but in case the creators do end up making more like this, I'd certainly like to be along for the ride. For 20 bucks, there really are worse things on Steam to spend your money on.

Consider this game if you:

+ are just looking for a couple hours of fun with a single-player tank game
+ have a soft spot for military vehicles of a bygone era, as well as cute anime girls (or boys)
+ don't mind or are even curious about experiencing WW2 "from the other side"
+ really enjoyed Girls und Panzer

What's missing to make the game great:

- a checkpoint system for the longer missions
- non-cosmetic tank customization (component upgrades, ammo loadout)
- more control over your tank company (composition, tactical orders)
- randomized side missions for replayability
- localization QA

Excellent VN with well-written characters, great art and superb acting from cute, talented Chinese voices that narrate almost every single spoken line.

A story that keeps tugging at your heart when it dips into the tragedies of deceit and misunderstandings, lifts your spirit with the sweetness of affectionate yuri romance, and makes you laugh at the antics of the characters. Even side characters like "Sassy Xi" add so much to the experience that I'd love to see all of them again. Whilst not quite reaching the levels of a, say, Kindred Spirits on the Roof, this game is definitely among the better VNs on Steam, especially with its art style which manages to stand out as both good and unique.

Please, more like this!

A solid squad tactics game that oozes dystopian cyberpunk flavor and a welcome change from the usual "Marines vs Orks" fare the 40k license is churning out on a weekly basis. Far from perfect, but a bargain considering its price.

The flaws:

- Fighters seem to have too many Movement Points, especially as circular stairs count as if the character is turning back, thus getting their MP refunded. With some maps, it feels like you can traverse half the map in a single turn, especially when using zip-lines that cost no Movement but Action Points, which makes tactical positioning feel devalued.

- Micro-managing consumables is tedious. The inventory quickly gets clogged up by several dozen different drugs and grenades, and five tiers of quality means you'll often have multiple stacks of the same type of gear. You can filter by category, but not sort by name or tier. A more intelligent UI (for example grouping all gear of the same type into one stack, and "refilling" from highest to lowest quality automatically) or simply turning consumables into permanent equipment with a limited number of uses per battle would make things a lot easier.

- Bugs, including occasional crashes and occasional AI fails, as already pointed out by other comments. It's not quite as horrible as some people make it out to be, and as the game auto-saves each turn, even a crash means you don't actually lose anything. The studio has already announced plans for a patch, so fingers crossed?

- No Workshop support for community mods. :(

The good stuff:

+ Surprisingly good visuals with an amazing amount of XCOM-style character customization and attention to detail, allowing you to give each ganger a unique and flavorful appearance. It's so good, it actually makes me wish for a Necromunda RPG or MMORPG in this style.

+ A cool 15 mission campaign with a suitably cheesy narration in the vein of Sin City, written by Necromunda tabletop veteran Andy Chambers and supported by half an hour of quality cinematics.

+ Open-ended gang operations where you can lead and grow your team through as many missions as you want, enjoying the game's solid combat mechanics. There's a surprising amount of depth, from gangers developing virtues and vices, to choosing perks for your HQ. Potential for an actual strategic territory control tug-of-war between rival gangs was missed here, but it's still fun to throw in a battle every now and then.

+ Co-op multiplayer!

All in all, I hope that the studio keeps developing and refining this kind of niche game, for as Necromunda still has a number of issues, you can see the improvements from its Warhammer Fantasy predecessor.

A high quality yuri VN (or rather kinetic novel; the amount of choices is *highly* limited) with beautiful visuals, good writing and funny characters. The soundtrack composers certainly deserve a shout-out as well, as the tracks by Mancuso and Flacke do a superb job at setting the scene and delivering atmosphere.

The game is certainly an emotional rollercoaster as well, as it turned out to be quite a bit more dramatic than I had anticipated going in. Of course, this is not a bad thing per se, though it is somewhat uncommon for a product of this genre to deviate this far from a laser-focus on relationships, to the point of almost becoming more of an adventure game with a relationship angle. In the end, however, this was the best way to tell this beautiful, at times bittersweet story, and the creators managed a compelling delivery that is equal parts romcom, fairy tale, and fantasy drama. Kinda makes me wish Ghibli would pick this up for a movie.

The tl;dr: a relaxing, wholesome arcade helicopter experience with multiplayer support. Easy to squeeze in a sortie or two during your lunch break.

Heliborne is still very much an early access product, although this is most evident in its menus and interface. The actual gameplay already feels fun and fleshed out, and the pivotal helicopters look as great as the maps you can fly them on.

Interestingly, the game seems to follow a traditional "F2P vehicle game" progression system in that you earn XP to unlock new helicopters and upgrades. Unlike most F2P, however, the low amount of XP required to progress through its currently four tiers on two factions feels decidedly un-grindy, which is probably a consequence of it being a buy-to-play title without any sort of secondary or even tertiary currency like "gold" or "credits". Instead, the very, very small team seems to try and drive continued monetarization by releasing optional and entirely cosmetic camo DLCs, which allow you to kit out your helicopters with additional liveries. Some camos can even be unlocked in the game with XP, acting as a sort of "sink" to help temper a progression system that is, frankly, so fast that one might question why it even has to exist in the first place.

The game has both a PvP as well as a PvE mode. The former seems more or less dead, but make no mistake: the latter is where the game really shines, anyways. Heliborne doesn't just pit helis against helis; instead, it simulates an ongoing conflict on the ground, where you are to lend air support and help turn the tide or press the attack. Your team is automatically assigned a number of dynamically generated missions including: convoy escort, air assault, infantry landing, medevac, and more.

The various helis shine in different roles, which rewards teamplay thanks to gratuitious synergy. Small and nimble scout helis spot enemy infantry hidden amid trees, gunships perform attack runs with their impressive armaments, in turn clearing the path for transport helis to bring in some ground pounders to help secure an LZ. You can also drop off mortar squads, which allows the scouts on your team to call in a mortar strike on enemy positions from afar. Last but not least, a recent update enables airlift of repair and ammo crates to the front lines to allow resupply in the field.

Of course, Heliborne doesn't have the polish of a bigger AAA title, and it's likely to remain a niche game, but if you're looking for a fun game that makes you feel like you're Colonel Bill Kilgore from Stanley Kubrick's Apocalypse Now, look no further.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1423716759