Recent reviews by [FG]Soulreaper317

Attention Helldivers,

The Automaton spies have been dealt with. We can finally resume operations. Democracy has prevailed.

This has a great CORE for a truly revolutionary game. HOWEVER due to early build you might want to wait if you want a smooth experience.

Pros:

1. Missions and the concept of doing them in a "persistent world" is perfect. It would be perfect if the missions could also be generated in the future and not just "streamlined". Hostages situations and alive civilian extract could also be amazing.

2. Great map setup allowing players to focus on both PVP and PVE as they please. It would be perfect if in the future they add area warning for players that try to grief the spawns. As in: all faction sees a 100 meter red circle on the map if players from the other faction join the first cities. This needs to be done in order to keep the experience grief clean.

3. Damage system. Ok this might be taken from Tarkov but it works perfectly well and gives a super good sense of danger and requires brain to actually stitch up.

4. Graphics are GREAT. It will obviously improve with new drivers and optimizations but this reminds me of ghost recon wildlands so much and i love it.


Cons:

1. Everything that has to do with early access like lag, AI being a bit stupid, bullet sponging /not registering etc., NPC spawns, missing keybindings and generally all the stuff which is fixed as the early access moves forward.


To end this review i just want to say that this formula over here was made by someone who understands Arma 3, Tarkov and Ghost Recon. If they cook this right this could be the Baldur's Gate 3 of the FPS world.

DO NOT disappoint us please :)

Don't waste your time on this one. At least not yet. This game has an extremely high probability of dying out within 1 year if they don't change direction on some core aspects.


Here is a list of a few MAJOR ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥:

1. They learned absolutely NOTHING from the beta. Classes are more unbalanced than ever, and running 3 heavy or 2 heavy and 1 medium is simply devastating. They should of forced 1 light 1 med and 1 heavy / team in all matches.

2. Every character looks retarded. I have no idea who came up with the "design" for that sad excuse of a player model but it was probably a Karen with blue hair. The skins and models are nothing short of nightmare material.

3. Game is full with cheaters already. There is 0 anti-cheat present and even the most blatant hack goes through without issues.

4. There are random micro-lags and ping spikes. Even on an extremely high rig you will notice these issues quite frequently. Game is not optimized and has some major issues that will need to be fixed sooner or later.

5. Why are there asian players on EU servers?! Why is this game NOT region locked based on IP? Yes i know you can bypass that with a VPN but at least it will force people to go an extra mile. Having Asian bots in half of all games is not fun for anyone especially when they are almost all cheating.

6. The UI is the worst UI i have seen in 20+years of gaming and 1k+ titles I've played. Never in my life have I seen such a bad management of menu, friend list, load-outs, and literally EVERYTHING ELSE that can be considered UI.



Things this game does right:

1. Environment destruction is nice and feels fresh. That's it. That is the only thing this game does right. Feels more like a demo environment of explosion spam-fests rather than a game imho but that's just me.

This masterpiece represents everything a true gamer could ever hope for. The only pity is that this level of quality demands talent and creativity, and we all know these traits are severely lacking in the gaming industry today.

Enjoy this gem, and remember that you lived in a moment when history was made.

Sadly this game had the worst possible start and by no means it managed to deliver a redemption arc like "No Man's Sky" but it has one of the greatest stories and universe out there.


The good:

1. Game finally works after years of development. Even tho this version of the game which is called 2.X feels like a 1.X (how the game SHOULD OF came out) i am willing to judge it in an overall positive manner (even tho bugs are still present)

2. There are some soundtracks which are downright masterworks. Certain segments are absolutely stunning.

3. Class system is working a lot better now. Some builds are super strong tho. I feel like they could of been polished a little more.

4. Graphics and cut-scene animation is Top level. We are talking above and beyond. If Baldur's Gate 3 raised the standard for RPG games, Cyberpunk raised the standard for animation, interaction and overall incredibly solid graphic compartment.


The Bad:

1. The game is made to really have 1 single ending. Yes i am aware there are around 8 different endings but only 1 max 2 really make sense. Sadly this is where the game took an insane hit for me. Game is meant to be played as Male V. The story arcs favor that over the female variant. The only ending that was crafted to 100% is the one with Panam. Everything else is beyond half baked at best. Doesn't have the same level of engagement, backstory, emotional impact, actual game missions/segments, nada. It's male V and Panam, nothing else. And even though this is considered the best ending it's still sad as ♥♥♥♥ in the end. HOWEVER if you are male V with Panam and do not choose her ending you will be hit in the face extremely hard (especially with phantom liberty main ending "the Tower")

2. The Phantom Liberty endings are an absolute psychological trauma. I will not spoil anything but i will only say that all 4 are extremely bad (not as in badly crafted but extremely bad/depressing outcomes)

3. Phantom Liberty was crafted in a way that it pushes you to betray songbird in a crucial mission. Only if you do that you will have access to a really big chunk of a mission otherwise inaccessible. Badly enough, this mission is the ONLY ONE in the game that has the "Alien VS Predator" Mechanic. It is a segment which cannot be encountered in any other way and it is really well done and panic inducing. Again, even in this case the choice ramification was half baked. Feels like the other endings could of had more work.

4. Cyber-Psycho missions. Fun to play against but wasted potential. Could of been so much more than just boss-fights. Huge missed opportunity.

5. The intro to the game is the only segment where Cyberpunk gives 100%. The missions you do with Jackie are basically the best they get in terms of ramifications and overall care & craft. Rest of the game is rather on rails. Huge, HUGE wasted opportunities. You can see that every main mission outside of the intro segment was basically a "Draft" that was just kinda left there (again) half baked. They still work, don't get me wrong, but having played the intro, everything else left a bitter taste.

6. Game is too easy. Even on Max difficulty game is a joke compared to how it was pre 2.0. And while i get that some segments pre 2.0 were almost impossible, i kinda feel sad for blazing through everything with no stealth needed what so ever (except for specific gigs in which it was mandatory).


There are so many more things to cover but i would go into too many spoilers. I hope that for future games they will not pull another ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up launch like this one so here's to Hoping!

I have no idea how Valve managed this level of ♥♥♥♥ up but they did.


Verdict: Absolute Trash/10


Just to list a few points:

1. Achievement removal from CS:GO
2. Constant lags on extremely high end PC Rigs
3. Rampant cheating from day 1. Aimbot/Wallhacks on at least 50% of all players i spectated.
4. Horrible UI. How you managed to break a perfect UI that worked flawlessly for 15 years is beyond me.
5. Missing maps / Modes and an infinity of content that was generated during the years.
6. Issues with matchmaking. You are insane to think ELO ranking can work in FPS games or ANY games outside of chess or 1 v 1 strategy titles (starcraft etc.). Your system never worked, it will never work, and the only thing it causes is toxicity between players.

Don't bother, this game needs at least 5 more years to actually fix the ♥♥♥♥ it created in this version.

(Review text hidden)

I want to give this game a positive review but it switched over to a negative one the more i played.



TLDR: Game has a very solid base but lacks heavily on the execution. The biggest downsides are the absolute monstrous pieces of text (fluff), and questionable meaningless time grabbing mechanics.



Now for the constructive criticism part, i WILL compare this to other games just to give you a better idea of how this should of been handled.


Story:

Pathfinder:
Story itself is interesting but i couldn't give 2 sh*ts about anyone. There is no proper character buildup, no universe introduction, etc. The game just simply bashes you in in the middle of a fight in which you are suppose to understand how things work in that universe... oh and also everything will be expressed under insane amounts of text which will get you to rage skip everything in the first 10 min of the game. I sh*t you not, this game has more f*ing text than actual books and that is really not good.

Games which have handled this properly:
Look at the witcher series, dragon age origins (or even inquisition), mass effect, Baldur's Gate 3, Skyrim, hell even star wars the old republic. These games have proper story build up and universe explanation which allow you to understand what is the good side, the bad side, dynamics, etc. Same goes for characters. Also these games implement a properly entertaining story telling with meaningful character choice without throwing an infinite wall of text at you.


Gameplay:

Pathfinder:
Gameplay is very nice BUT there is a SEVERE lack of proper autosaves. Who in their right mind can't implement a simple autosave mechanic after each fight is over .... that was literally ABC level of f*kup.
This game is (kinda) built with the good old turn based mechanic in mind, BUT they actually allow for a dragon age style gameplay, which is super nice. This said, the game also blasts you with worthless encounters over and over again so in reality for every positive aspect this game has there is an equally negative one.

Games which have handled this properly:
Baldur's Gate 3 is a perfect example. There aren't a ton of fights BUT each fight is significant and fun. Considering that Pathfinder has a TON of classes, i would of loved to see a game that doesn't act like left4dead and throw hordes and hordes of enemies every 5cm traveled.


Quick travel:

Pathfinder:
Absolute mess. There is a corruption mechanic, a fatigue mechanic and a time simulation mechanic..... guys what the f*ck? All you had to do is pick 1, not all 3. It doesn't even make sense.... If you travel too much you run into fatigue which makes all characters basically useless and you need to rest. If you don't go back to base the corruption mechanic kicks in (if you don't have a proper character to lower that during normal rests). And to top everything off, every time you travel time also passes by (which is used for the Army minigame).

Games which have handled this properly:
Baldur's Gate 3 is yet again the perfect example. Simple easy quick travel points that don't take away from the fun. Also there are no needless "filler" spam fights while teleporting around.


Inventory & character management:

Pathfinder:
Ermmmm it's an item spam fest. Feels like i playing borderlands but i only get white items non stop from everyone and occasionally the enchanted ones from proper stashes, missions etc. I have no idea what items i should be using unless i go and consult the character sheet for every hero. There could of been a better way to manage this by properly adding a few extra lines of code but yeah w.e

Games which have handled this properly:
Literally everyone. From FPS games to RPG games mentioned previously to w.e. Games usually run economy through quests and gold looting. Pathfinder runs economy through item hording (it's kinda like skyrim but without all the fun involved, and without looting actual gold)


There are a lot of other problems like extremely bad map design, infinite loading screens, unbalanced as fk classes (just run a beast master ranger with a bear fully built for tank + secondary minions and you will literally blaze through enemies with a small army on top of the party characters. Broken AF).

Like i said at start, the game started off good but got progressively bad because of spam fest and pointless time wasting mechanics, on top of insane fluff of dialogue text. All of this might work in front of a real life tabletop game, but as a video game it's really bad (even thought it had the potential to be extremely good)

Everything you could of ever possibly wanted from a "battlefield" type game. The mechanics and game-play are absolutely stellar.

The only negative aspect is the graphic compartment, but it can surely get better with time.

If you are nostalgic for the good old days, look no further, this game goes above and beyond.

I'm really sorry to leave this review but at least i forced myself through the whole game before posting...

Story:
Good story mechanics (choice tree), bad overall story. I mean the ending was just lame. There were so many ways to manage that instead of making a "full maniac gone wild generic timeline"

Story dynamics:
Well.... it's a full blown walking simulator. Even tho the story makes logical sense, the way they implemented it is absolutely worthless. The "Now go talk to that guy" fillers are insane... Out of 45 hours i spent AT LEAST 30 walking....

Game-play:
There is close to 0 enemy variety. Seriously just forget it... There are 6 ish different boss types and 2 main enemy types (humans and monsters). Yes monsters have variety but it's basically they all do the same attacks with rly small differences.
Character build system is DREADFUL. There are areas which need you to have certain skills but those skills cannot be acquired because you need other skills for the equipment, then when you finally arrive to have the needed skills, you discover that the hidden area had a generic chest behind..... wtf.....
Crafting is pretty much pointless and so is companion equipment since somehow they always do 0 damage even with good equipment (or close to 0 anyway)

Graphics:
Overall good world / 3rd person view. Animations are bad during dialogues. I know how hard animating stuff is so i will not criticize it in detail because it's an actual creative factor but yeah.... generally it's super unpolished.

Audio:
Ermmm a lot of reused assets. You will in fact build audio ticks because of how much some lines repeat xD

Overall:
Big potential story wise, nice approach with the Dragon Age wanna-be mechanics but ultimately destroyed by game-play watering down and huge walk simulator missions. 4.5/10 Could of easily been an 8/10