Recent reviews by Strayed

Bugger me are the co-op mission servers a lot of fun!

This game can now be considered a historical documentary.

If I was to sum up this game in one word it would be "unfair"

There is far too much RNG and bugs that completely break a run that losing really isn't the fault of anything down to the player doing anything wrong which in the end leads to a lot of unnecessary frustration. The difficulty spike when you reach sector 2 is outright punishing where the game can be best described in that it turns into what is essentially a juggling act where you are juggling live chickens while wearing a blindfold riding a unicycle hoping you get worthwhile loot to progress. The unlock mechanic is just there to gatekeep you from progressing and having fun, there is no other words to describe it as it becomes frustrating when you realise your defeat was essentially not having the tools unlocked to do the job.

If you want a more detailed list of issues though:


Its basically impossible in most cases to tell who is who on screen especially in the chaos that happens. Even with the different colours really is hard to make out who is who.
Primary reason for this is the game has it so you unlock characters with specific skill sets as you progress in rank. The problem is since you only have two gun you find a lot of people often using the same characters especially when new as you only have certain options available to you. This means you can get absolutely lost who is who if people are using the same character which can be mitigated by wearing hats which of course you only unlock by leveling up but with the caveat they can be knocked off characters and despawn which again means back to square one. I have honestly no idea why the devs didn't see the obvious solution to make player characters avatars only and separate the stats as possible classes/presets.

Second in terms of UI it suffers from that issue of "press use for everything" button which becomes annoying if say someone has put a repair kit down and you want to pick it up but cause it is so close to the gun you end up on the gun instead.

Third could attribute more to a bug but generally some events you frankly have to squint to make out where you need to go as either the area you need to go again blends into the background.


To sum up there are some gamebreaking bugs, most notable is what appears to be a desync bug where you cannot use any item at all. You basically can float around with a repair kit unable to do anything till the event is over and you go to the next sector. This can cause you to lose and it is deeply unfair.

Second is a more hilarious one that if you get boarded by enemies they'll run around reloading your guns and repairing your ship. It was shocking how much better the game was when we had that additional crewman running around helping us out. This game in the present state feels like it's made for 5-6 player co-op to deal with the bull it throws your way and the improvement to the game flow from this bug I'll argue as proof of this.


To put it simply, there isn't any.

Was playing in co-op and our run felt really down to luck than skill. Getting trash rewards can make or break a run. Some weapons are just so godawful to the point they are unusable while others at the end effectively increased our damage twelvefold. Because only a handful of weapons are effective you are too scared to experiment and try different tactics since you know more than likely its not going to work. This is of course even touching on the unlock system where a lot of what feels like essential equipment and upgrades are artificially locked behind a rank/achievement system.

Enemy scaling is absurd where we gave up playing on Normal as the enemy ended up with such ludicrous amounts of health, firepower and crew that we basically could do nothing to do them. Even on Easy it still had these caveats to deal with. There is very little strategy involved when the enemy basically has the ability to pound you with 5 guns constantly, not worry about the same damage mechanics you have to deal with and essentially spams its way through engagements. From screenshots the developer looks like only playtested with cheats enabled.

Anyway could point out a lot more flaws but I am getting towards character limit. Got this game on sale, completed finally a playthrough with friends, would not recommend it unless the developer seriously does a major rebalance patch in future that tries to make more ways to play viable, cuts down on the RNG and frustration, and more importantly looks into ways to make it more fun.

Lacks homoerotic beach volleyball

Finally, a good RoboCop sequel!

You can tell this is a British game when the first level is a pub and you need to know how to play darts in order to 100% the game.

I'd recommend this on sale as it finally is at the stage it should be, though every update seems to keep bringing unexpected bugs that take a while to fix and the in game store for weapons is nothing but RNG cancer hence why swinging more to a thumbs down.

HDoom feels more tactical

Kind of wish Steam would allow a "Meh" recommendation when it ain't quite yes and ain't quite no cause there is a lot to love but also hate. What sets this over the edge to "No" really is that it feels a bit overpriced even discounted at the moment.

If I were to sum up the main issue with this game is that this feels like it was created by people who watched nothing but competitive AOEII gameplay and as a result completely failed to understand AOE as a whole. Every screen and part of the menu seems catered to trying to throw competitive online modes in your face and its really annoying. It feels you have to do a fair bit of digging to find out where to get custom fun gamemodes and maps which realistically the vast majority of online players actually play, and even more digging trying to find out where to get the modtools to make content yourself. Seriously, RTS developers keep falling into this pitfall trap of catering to what is frankly maybe 1% of the RTS audience. Stop trying to force competitive down our throats, if your game is good enough a competitive scene will appear naturally, trying to force it just alienates a large proportion of your real audience.

Now the side issues are a weird mix of having the good mixed in with the bad:
This does a good job of trying to be a history channel documentary before it became whatever it is today, certainly not history. Nice to show the places where the battles took place with decent footage to visualise what was happening.
Problem is that because it's trying to tell a story the missions have way too much handholding. You end up feeling very limited with what you can do to achieve victory. It also feels that a few achievements/objectives are bugged as you can complete them but it won't show as being done.

This game has way less micro than AOEII and honestly that is for the better. It's all about using terrain and positioning to your advantage in AOEIV, and I wished the game made that a lot more prevalent. Its nice also units were automatically cluster into formations as well.
Problem is that you don't have a lot of options when deciding the formation or direction of your units, at least none that are advertised. There is also a severe problem where units just frankly disobey any orders you give them and can take multiple attempts for them to follow your instructions. Pathfinding is also a weird issue is that sometimes they'll do a good job, othertimes they'll do whatever they want to do, typically follow terrible paths or get stuck.

The mode that most players will try playing and a bit of a weird one. Best described as having the design all right but the engineering all wrong. It's interesting that Scouts are basically the ones that can herd sheep now but it does turn the Dark Age into a rather hilarious game of sheep herding simulator. What ruins the mode though is the AI but not for the reasons you'd expect. It doesn't feel like it cheats which is to be commended and does a decent job of building its economy, however the main issue is that it is trying to play the game as city builder. I'm not even kidding when I say you can successfully rush and beat the hardest AI in the Dark Age for the simple reason that it refuses to build units to protect itself until the Feudal Age. Needs at least some change to the build order so it at least makes an attempt at defending itself.

This is where AOEIV gets interesting as it tries to mix parts of AOE with Stronghold. Something that AOE games were definitely lacking was the ability to build impressive fortifications so it felt like you besieging a castle/city with troops mounted on the walls. It's also interesting that buildings essentially terraform the terrain to make it feel like you are building a true settlement and makes it feel more alive. Nice enough if you are playing city builder, but makes you wonder why it isn't utilised in something like a siege gamemode?

This basically tries to be a remake of AOEII with nations while trying to make them feel more unique like AOEIII. Interesting enough attempt I guess although sometimes it feels neither here nor there, even though they try to give each nation their own gimmick. What will definitely stand out is that there is a lack of nations compared to AOEII without it feeling as unique as AOEIII roster, as a lot even with unique mechanics do end up feel like playing the same.
I am a bit confused why the Danes/Vikings are not in game as a choice or as an upcoming choice, because there are units/model assets for them that appear in the Campaign. It's like having most of the work done on a project then completely forgetting it exists.

Goose Lets Loose is let down massively by a bunch of poorly implemented ideas and decisions.
Having no real tutorial is an obvious big one since the game mechanics are not that well explained or shown to a new player.
UI is frankly horrendous and terrible to navigate.
I don't know whether it is the maps are too big or the player count is just too small, but you certainly don't get the feeling that you need to fight over an entire frontline. Only a small part of it at a time leaving the entire map to waste.
Why is there even an unlock system in this game for loadouts? It just doesn't make sense for the type of game its trying to be. All it does is to artificially lock playstyles rather than contribute anything meaningful to the game.
Movement pacing feels all off and there is not that much in terms of player feedback.

Overall this game seems like it is trying to have the strategic depth of a tactical shooter while copying gameplay mechanics of an arcade title and succeeding at doing neither.