Recent reviews by Cadence

Publisher (likely) decided to enforce Playstation Network accounts, which blocks off legitimate players who have dozens to hundreds of hours already in the game and haven't needed to use that account. The reasoning is weak at best.

Game is already a buggy mess, to point to authentication and security (of which Sony has a laughable track record) as something that needs to be addressed when I can die by clipping through the floor still or by falling an inch, maybe there are bigger things to address.

If this game isn't refundable for people who are going to be blocked by this action, then it's going to piss off a lot of people even further. This needs to be addressed in a consumer-focused way, which I doubt Sony will do. So, for that, this game sadly gets a negative review for now. If Arrowhead also agreed to this, well, shame on them. If not, keep on, and maybe Sony will get the message.

Edit: Requirements for account have been backed down from. Now it's on Arrowhead to regain community trust. Once that's been done, this game will go back to a positive review. The CEO has even admitted that he's partially culpable here, so let's see what AH does before cheering them on.

Online only turned day one into no playing at all, and day two appears to be much of the same. I have hundreds of hours on PD2, this is a huge disappointment. Honestly, should have seen it coming since I saw the always online, but the beta and pre-release period were fun but the game is just not ready in its current state and there's more beyond the current unable-to-be-played state. There's a lot of QOL stuff that isn't even there from PD2.

Sadly, gameplay-wise, it is a bit of a step forward. There's some UI/bugs to be ironed out (see aforementioned QOL), but the stealth feels more fluid, the gunplay feels solid, and even though the gameplay is less "one shot to the head = one kill" than the predecessor, it still has a good ebb-and-flow. So when game does work, it seems like a good step forward for Payday, but always online and forced matchmaking and all this other nonsense are just ten steps backwards. They have their own mountain of themselves to climb in order to even beat PD2, and this is not how they're going to go about doing it.

So, first off let me say this. The trailer is extremely misleading. There's no lush forests in the beginning of the game, it's much less lush and more rugged and rocky. The red vines you see curling up around the tree end up being inside of a cave system later in the game. The slow time system never happens. The boss fights do though. The MP is there. There are some fun climbing and puzzle-ish moments. But the trailer is misleading.

I finished the game on Master Mode. It was touted as being able to customize my guns. It seems that meant that I could upgrade them at the equipment station. I'm OK with that. There was also no swiping across my view to pull up turret deployment. That would be convenient. Instead there's a construction menu you have to go through. The big beasts you see, you only fight them later on. They never assault your base. However, other beasts (and humans) do. And when they do it's like seeing fireworks everywhere if you've got all the turret types deployed.

I'm leaving a positive review because this game feels like Subnautica minus the water. You're on an alien planet that has a living ecosystem. There are creatures that live in different biomes, they do different things, they have different lives. When you get different materials, you can build different things ranging from armor to weapon upgrades to different drinks that can boost shields or make you invincible for a short period of time. There's also a hostile human faction which adds some gunplay into the mix which is welcomed so it's not just fauna that you're fighting.

The ancient alien areas that you go through end up being some of the more interesting parts. However, they're short. They're like little puzzles or timing your walking since you can't jump.

There's quite a few guns, so you can find one that fits your style and works well against your particular obstacle.

I would say if you have a friend to play with, pick this up, it's worth it.

This game is part H3, part mil-sim. Climb to get to a good position and take out enemies with a gun you've customized. Duck behind cover and take out enemies using weapons you have hand-picked off of a wall of growing weaponry.

It's great. I only wish it had a push-to-crouch option, as I have a bad back and can't continuously crouch and stand. But otherwise? It is a stellar game.

You start out given a tutorial with how to put together guns ranging from how to put a mag into a pistol and pull the slide back to how to put together a sniper rifle w/ bipod and scope and pull the bolt back. Then there's a part of the course that has you climbing around, physically climbing, your character can climb to get to vantage points, one of the things that really stood out to me. That's a big thing. If you don't like what cover you have you can *climb* to find new cover. As always ducking behind cover is an option. Suppressors are an option, so I'm guessing using them means enemies won't know where you are and you could reasonably go behind enemy lines and take them out.

Unfortunately for me the isn't the aforementioned push-to-crouch, and with a bum back I had to refund my purchase.

But otherwise? Full on recommended. Grab a gun you like and give it a custom mag, your favorite sight, a stock of your choosing if it doesn't already come with one, a gadget like a flashlight or laser sight, a muzzle attachment, and really make your own guns. Then grab some explosives and hit the campaign or multiplayer.

I see this game being great. If it adds that button it will be an instant-rebuy for me.

-- Lana

So, Chasm is if you took all of the good parts of most Metroid games, Steamworld Dig, and some of the other Metroidvanias and made an amalgamation of all of those games and then put some polish on it. I'll try to list the pros/cons but I'm sure I'll be missing some.

Pros:
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- Seeds can be shared so you can race your friends or see what they liked about their seed, or try to beat your own time on the same seed.
- RPG style leveling up brings a nice touch as sometimes that extra level will help. But it won't make the huge difference because...
- Gear is important and not having the right gear can turn an easy area into a difficult one. This makes the gear progression feel better when you see your DEF jump from 10 to 20, or attack jump up by 10 points. It can help.
- It doesn't feel procedurally generated. Aside from a couple of repeat rooms, many of the rooms are standard castlevania style, vertical corridors climbed by jumping, long stretches filled with enemies, etc. But it's stitched together masterfully. And the handcrafted parts of the game (small bits), and rooms that need to be inside of certain areas, can feel very interestingly thought out.
- Weapon types are varied and have stronger versions (including boss weapons that have special effects) as you go along. That leather whip you got will be weaker than the bone whip, which in turn is weaker than the thorn whip. If you're willing to farm for it (there's a bestiary online) you can essentially play the entire game with one type of weapon. There may be some gaps in time where your weapon will feel weak because a new one hasn't dropped yet or isn't available til a later area, but it is possible, I think, I haven't tried every single weapon class only runs, but it certainly feels that way.
- Metroid style progression is there and progress feels slow but it's more powerful than at first glance. For example being able to grab ledges opens up a ton of spaces, and it doesn't feel like it until you're going back over the maps.
- Devs are very responsive on discord, and take feedback and hopefully will be releasing patches to make the game even better.
- Some of the secrets are pretty tough to find, fortunately you can get help with that later. I put this as a pro because sometimes it's way too obvious in games. Sometimes the secrets in this game can lead to entirely new areas, or shortcuts between zones.
- New area means new tiers of enemies, weapons, and drops to collect. Believe me when I say that you can easily go to later areas and farm weapons and such and they will be drastically more powerful than what you can buy.
- Crafting is simple so you can get back into the game if you've been lucky with drops. Some of the armors will keep you pretty set for an area.
- Two Familiars (One if you weren't a backer I believe) means you can have a floating companion. It takes up the headgear slot, which is a bit of a ding against it, but the help they can provide is nice.
- Build your gear your way - If you want high STR, DEF and CON, you can do that. If you want to stack LUK, you can do that. If you want to be a jack of all trades, you can do that too. There's plenty of gear to make this possible.


Cons:
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- No new game plus. Want to try out your friend's seed? Level 1, No gear, final destination. That being said the devs have mentioned making a new game mode, so we'll see as the game gets patched.
- Unable to edit map markers to say what they're for. You also have to be in the same room as the marker to add/remove it. This is being taken into consideration as well I've heard, so it may be patched.
- Unless you know about quest items for NPCs (well, where to find them) you can miss out on some pretty powerful gear. There's no hand holding in this game. Your best bet is to explore everywhere. Or use a pre-defined seed that has a walkthrough.
- Drop rates are pretty low. Even with the tweak recently. That makes progression with weapons feel slow at times as sometimes the only way to obtain the next tier in a weapon class is through drops.
- Backtracking followed by limited save points feels like too big a risk for too little reward.
- No "Fast Travel" except back to town, so you can't save a location and warp to it or warp to checkpoints or anything that you've made. It would be nice considering how sprawling some of these areas can be.

Personally, I love this game. Minus the few cons I've listed I think once a few patches on a freshly released game like this come out, it'll skyrocket in popularity. The devs are already talking further content and taking feedback into account. I'd say it's solid 8/10 material right now and could be looking at more later. I'm recommending this game. Hopefully others will get it and come up with more feedback to talk to the devs about on discord so ideas can be considered and added if the team agrees with the direction.

If you've been looking for a metroidvania recently, this is a good one. The things it reminds me of while playing make me smile out of nostalgia and to see that some things don't change in this genre. I hope this helps make the decision for someone, as we'd love more players, as it's a relatively unknown game (Googling anything for Chasm is a nightmare thanks to it's name being shared across multiple other games in quests or it's name or names of places, etc.) and having more players talking on the discussion boards and discord. Hope you enjoy it!

Build Date: 6/31 or 7/1, the build that was released with early access.

I demo'd Thrill of the Fight when the developer posted it on Reddit, and immediately took to it. Sending the developer some feedback, he said he was aiming for an arcade-y feel and I think he's managed to hit a good sweet spot where the game is fun but you don't need to be an expert in anything, though being better does provide you more windows of opportunity to attack.

This version is a huge improvement on the demo, which was only made available a short while ago, showing that the developer has the ability to write quality content in a reasonable timeframe.

I'd say the price point for two fights (right now there's your trainer and Ugly Joe) is worth it, as there's many different ways to fight Joe, and you could slowly get better, work up from dodging to countering, work up from guarding to dodging, there's always ways to improve your personal skill, and from what it sounds like, it'll be needed for future fights.

Looking forward to seeing more enemies and new ways to mix things up!