Recent reviews by Addest

Quick and dirty rundown:

There simply isn't enough content here.
One map, one gamemode.
Three classes with very limited equipment options.
Only three guns for most classes.

Whats here is fun, but there just isn't enough of it. Feels like a demo.

Graphical bugs allow anyone with LOW graphics settings to see directly through smoke and trees.

Unplayable until this is fixed. Anyone Recommending this game or giving positive reviews is clearly oblivious to this issue or a Developer.

I [CONSUMED] games and game trailers! I love Devolver Digital™!

I feel that to give a critical analysis of this Prologue would be against the very nature of what Svavelstickan has tried to achieve with it, however, that won't stop me from trying, ♥♥♥♥♥.

-Initial Impressiony Bits or something:
As you begin the Prologue you are consequently hit with a silky smooth track and credit by/to Constrobuz which does wonders when paired with the unique lighting and art direction of SF:P. As the camera pans down towards one of our main characters, you see them dressed in light, rain and a certain type of dreary workers sadness that can only be described as "Weak ♥♥♥♥". This short but sweet introduction really encapsulates the mood of the world and gives the player a great idea of what to expect... until you gain control, walk slightly left, and are offered Penis Enlargement Pills and an assortment of otherworldly goods by two Big Bear Scouts and you realize your broke ass ain't in Fortnite anymore. Further bejeweling our now Viagra laced alleyway are a set of rude thugs, a clip art cop, a conspiracy theorist and an android that that tells you a brief history of the world spiraling you into a deep void of despair, self questioning and an uncontrollable urge to hit the E key to make the voices stop so you won't big sad no more.

Critically speaking, I wholly admit that I did not expect such an oddly specific and confident level of humor from SF:P but it is warmly welcomed and oddly fits the post domesticated internet age where rebellion and outlandish remarks are king and queen. The humor rarely goes out of it's own bounds and really works to benefit the narrative presented.


-Parts of the Ham Sandwich:
Writing: ░ ░ ░ ░ out of ░ ░ ░ ░ ░
The writing presents itself as uncaring, brash and zealous, which really works towards the overall idea of the Prologue. I found myself trying to find everyone I could possibly talk to just to juice this orange for its seeds. I had genuinely boisterous laughs while simultaneously struggling to find a section that didn't also serve the story, current situation or overall gangster theme and aesthetic. I am deducting one ░ point as I would liked to have seen less real world references (IE: Blatantly naming Epstein) and more uncanny, in world jokes and theme. It's very clear to me that the creator has a solid idea of this static filled world and I would like to see them lean into that just a bit more.

Music: ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ out of ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼
The music is a wonderful supporting character in it's own right. Without the gameplay and theming, the music would stand on it's own two hip sticks, but with the game and the music backing each other, it becomes deeply symbiotic and the music takes on a deeper feeling. It's almost as if the music is the anchoring point for the outlandishness that is the world of SF:P and it works wonderfully to invest you in a seemingly indigestible world. I am deducting one whole ¼ point as during combat, the music seems to repeat on a track that I found slightly distracting. I would like to hear more variance in the music during combat and feel that this would facilitate a more fun experience.

Theme and Art Direction: ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ out of ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂ ☂
Have you ever been shot in the face with clip art, sick god rays, cool ass digi-portraits, tight lo-fi designs, an assortment of comic book filters and street grunge all at once? If not you should give SF:P a double pull of the trigger. The idea and art direction are incredibly all over the place yet somehow all the different aspects live in harmony in this little comfy rainy snowglobe. Everything fits while at the same time clashing but in the right ways creating its own unique feel. It's a bit difficult to describe so I suggest just doing the pressy thing with the play button and see for yourself.

Gameplay: ₧ ₧ ₧ out of ₧ ₧ ₧ ₧ ₧
Entering combat for th- (R). Entering combat for the second ti- (R). Entering combat for the third time I began to swing my weapon wildly as I cut down my opponents with the accuracy of a weighted 4 foot fly swatter. Combat has several issues. The first being that the sword does not feel accurate enough to control reliably which is a must when trying to swat bullets out of the air. Slowing down time can help this but I couldn't help but feel the effect was just a little too short to be of real use, often leading me to die to a bullet that didn't quite reach my blade in time. Another issue is that some enemies feel all too easy while others (specifically gun wielders) felt a little too out of control of your character. To clarify, I welcome difficulty, but being unfair is just that. Additionally I didn't find myself using any combat techniques other than swinging my sword in a way that I hoped would work, the kick for instance never crossed my mind during a combat situation. With all this being said though, the combat actually can be fun and I found myself wanting to do cooler looking moves even though I felt limited overall. Oddly, I enjoyed and still feel I would enjoy the other parts of the game more without combat really needing to be too insanely polished. The theme and world building really carries the game and without it I feel the combat would only be getting one or two ₧ points.

Level layout and Exploration: ⍍ ⍍ ⍍ out of ⍍ ⍍ ⍍ ⍍ ⍍
SF:P isn't anything remarkable when it comes to it's levels, but they also aren't inherently bad. It's hard to imagine any other way that the game could be laid out. The prologue allows you to scurry about between combat missions and find nooks and crannies with fun little extras and characters to converse with (who always have something interesting to say). The combat levels themselves are fairly straight forward usually being rooms with a few walls or obstacles to jump off of and an open playing field. I am deducting two ⍍ points. One point is for the difficulty I had in finding out that you had to press S+Space in order to jump down behind certain areas. I did find where this was spray painted on the wall, however, it's possible to miss and could leave players confused. The other point deduction is for the combat levels being just a bit too bland. I feel there could be more fun obstacles or moving obstacles within them.

-[Insert clever non-MLA format header about conclusion]
After finishing SF:P I immediately had the strong feeling of wanting more. More of whatever just happened. SF:P offers a nice replayability factor through encouraging exploration and giving a nice timer to measure your playthrough against your own or others; the encouragement for "cooler" combat is also there. SF:P Isn't without flaws or faults however. Some level design and combat issues do exist but I feel they could easily be tinkered with, changed or fixed to really polish the otherwise overwhelmingly positive experience SF:P offers. Personally I really feel that this world and series is already something special and it's only going to be a matter of time and some polish to let it really shine. It goes without saying that this game has a soul, a warm, love filled soul covered in erectile dysfunction medication and basking in the glow of a CRT tv.

Overall Score:
4 scared children out of 5

There is no way I can recommend this to anyone in this state. I will list the issues:

1. Whole body physics was a TERRIBLE idea. Everything you do feels like you are drowning in a pool of syrup. Climbing becomes a herculean task and most times you lose your hand under something and have no idea where it is or what its doing and you end up failing the puzzles. Oh the puzzles.

2. The puzzles. The puzzles are not challenging in the way that puzzles should be, stimulating, thought provoking etc. No, all these puzzles do is make you fight against the physics system. There really is no more to say. Puzzles are often thoughtless and the good ones just become drab due to the IK and physics issues.

3. Gunplay. This is what broke my heart the most. The gunplay was touted as some of the best VR and SLZ had to offer. The recoil on all weapons feels like a saturday morning cartoon because of the arms being physical objects. Additionally, none of the guns feel like they have oomph because of this. It feels like you're holding a weak roman candle that might or might not do what you want it to. Slow motion is neat and fixes some of this, but lets touch on that too.

4. Slow motion/bullet time is hardly implemented, why? When you're in the middle of a firefight or at a moment you want to use it, you don't think to take your thumb off the control stick for movement and use slow motion. I and most everyone else want to usually keep moving during a firefight. Some may argue this is a balancing act claiming that slow motion has a price, sure, I get that, but how many times have you instinctively used it rather than using it as a reaction in a fight? Ill wait.

5. Enemies, oh the enemies. Without getting too heavy into spoilers, I'll just say that the enemies feel non threatening, all of them. With any gun in the game, all enemies can be dispatched like they were a side note. The only time enemies become interesting is during melee combat, but the melee combat unfortunately swings about wildly more-so than GORN making them feel not special at all and a simple downgrade to literally any firearm in the game.

6. Bugs/Other issues. Today is 12/13 only a few days after release and there is now a patch that has completely broken the arms. Every time you try to throw something they lock in place and follow the HMD lock. I read the discussions and they apparently had been working on the bug for about 12 hours before going to sleep. Apparently a "beta" branch has now been released that "fixes" this but saves no progress. I appreciate the hard work, but how can you leave the game in an entirely 100% unplayable state for almost a day now. Additionally, there have been numerous users reporting memory leaks and crashing, I too experienced this as Boneworks was trying to use 14gb+ of memory when it crashed. ZERO developer comment on this one AFAIK.

Hailed as the savior of VR and the best title to be released thus far, Boneworks simply isn't. It isn't anything. It's a sandbox and a bunch of tools packaged up in a "game". This might be nice with things like mod support or an open sandbox from the get go. I cannot and will not recommend this game in this state or really any other state that doesn't include DRASTIC reworks of the IK and physics systems.

1.6 was better

Game is fine. If you have optimization problems you are bad at troubleshooting. Gtx 1070 i5-4670k getting 60+ fps at High in 1920x1080 since day one.

Disconnections are because of denuvo, and that sucks, but I like how crybabies are losing their ♥♥♥♥ over this release and don't remember that nearly every online game has a rocky launch.

Playing the Slayer class finally let me live my life long dream of being a tornado with axes that kills big rats and other dudes with axes.

10/10

+Optimized: Getting 56-60constant FPS, even in towns and cities, with an i5-4670k and a gtx1070.
(Download your latest drivers if you have issues)
+Very deep mechanics and skills but not overwhelmingly so
+Immersive. You can tell almost every single thing has a personal touch
+Beautiful scenery
+Fast travel actually makes sense
+Dialogue is actually interesting and matters

+/-Combat system leaves just a tad to be desired, not bad by any means though
+/-Dialogue animations could use some work, but don't break immersion
+/-The extreme open endedness of the game may be a turn off for some. Some quests are almost puzzle like.
+/-Bartering (for me personally) seems to never work

-Stamina system could use a lot of work. If were talking on historical accuracy and just general human health, a person of the main characters age and physique should be able to throw more than 4 punches before being entirely winded.
-Save system makes sense lore wise, but became a massive hinderance after some play time. Bad implimentation. Bad idea all around.

Overall, I have really enjoyed the game. PS: Don't judge the 1.8 hours on steam, I have around 5 total so far.