Recent reviews by Billions Must Try

Some good ideas but ultimately half finished and outshone by the other Diablo clones I've played.
I tooled around a bit with the other classes but I completed the main campaign on the Witch Hunter.

PROS:
+ Game starts out strong. Good pacing of abilities, gear, enemies, and difficulty
+ Some real pretty environments
+ Nice visual effects and enemy feedback
+ Gear all visually appears on your character and has great art direction. Transmutation is available for free too. I was chasing drip as much as chasing stats.
+ Classes will vary, but I found Witch Hunter's ability and skillset pretty fun at first
+ You can trade gear between your saved characters
+ Performed great at 4k. Frame dips were rare.

CONS:
- Bizarre audio bugs. Imbalance in ears, too loud for some sections, too quiet for others. Honestly I wouldn't know where to begin to diagnose this.
- Environments are repeated way too often. First time you go into a tile set it looks really cool... then you dread the next 2-4 hours being in that exact same location. I say "tile sets" but they even wholesale copy level geometry in some areas too.
- Balance goes completely off the rails and fast after the first 5 or so hours. On the hardest difficulty the game was absolutely incapable of providing challenge. By 2/3 completion I was one-shotting almost everything, including bosses. There are 4 difficulties by default and 10 more after completing the campaign the first time... they should absolutely have made these available straight away
- No conventional shop. The only gear you find is in levels or a couple arena challenges. The "shop" is a literal hand-rubbing merchant you "donate" your useless items to in order to receive XP and a few milestone skills... that's it.
- Managing gear only comes down to "replace with higher number" and "enchant with gems you find." Extremely shallow, and the combat side isn't interesting enough to make up for it.
- Abilities are interesting at first but quickly the top tier ones make themselves apparent and you're just handicapping yourself using maybe 80% of the passive/active skills.
- Story is bare bones and as copy-paste Warhammer as they come.
- Music is supremely generic "fantasy orchestra."
- You can see the effort in the environments and enemies become less and less as the game reaches completion.

OVERALL:
Game is way too easy and repetitive the first playthrough, and it isn't deep enough for another one except MAYBE trying a different character. The interesting enemies run out pretty early as the other Chaos Gods mostly just reskin each other and the otherwise gorgeous environments are just repeated way too much. The weird audio bug is also a huge hurdle.
I've never played Diablo but I've played Van Helsing, VTM: Redemption, and Dungeon Siege 1, and I thoroughly recommend all three of those before this game.

- Abandoned
- Only a couple weapons/bloodlines reign supreme
- Consoligger aim assist is so ridiculously strong that anyone who's used to a controller has enormous advantage over a PC player. The half of the lobby that isn't bots is mostly Playstation immigrants abusing the SS tier AK. For whatever reason they're allowed to disable crossplay but we aren't.

Hard pass

Not a lot to it, but I found a few hours of relishable fun with how bombastic and brutal the game is

GOOD STUFF:
- Reasonably diverse array of combat approaches that give you enough to think about to be interesting, but aren't overly complex within the game's breakneck pace
- High speed with a fair amount of road and environmental hazards
- Impactful violence from ramming people off the road, to decapitating them, to wiping out yourself
- The roguelite elements are compelling enough for the first dozen or so campaigns before you've completed the permanent progression tree
- Large variety of riders and bikes that'll make different campaigns feel varied, with lots of challenges to complete
- Soundtrack I believe is assembled royalty-free music but it's surprisingly good, unique, and fitting to the action on-screen

NOT SO GOOD STUFF:
- Guns make the game far too easy. They're definitely fun to use, but they're handed out so liberally that even most of the handicapped challenge characters just complete the runs too easily. The rewards you get for difficult takedowns aren't nearly enough to justify doing them for anything other than style points.
- Bike handling and physics can get real wonky, especially around sharp turns and at high speeds. The bikes definitely could use more traction and weight.
- The campaign missions and general structure get stale pretty quickly. It's fun to try all the different riders, but going through the same levels with the same 3 or 4 challenges on repeat is tiring.
- It's pretty ugly visually. The assets all look Unity Store-level generic and most textures and models of the environment look well over 10 years old. Plenty of dull grey and brown outside of the snow stage.
- There are rooftop courses between each of the campaign stages. They sound fun on paper but are really boring, devoid of challenge, and get old super fast. Same with the haha-funny Rainbow Road easter egg race you're forced to compete at the end of EVERY campaign.

OVERALL:
I think if the bike handling was tightened up a bit and the melee combat just one extra layer of complex this could be a great arcade game. As it stands, clobbering people off their bikes at 120 mph doesn't get old and turning them into red paste with heavy metal blaring is definitely enough to sustain 15-30 hours in my eye. Ace the campaign skilltree and beat the campaign+ mode with all the riders.
Other than that, the game is real bare bones and often gives off the impression of being older than it is. It has no character and very little end-game challenge other than just trying not to wipe out on sharp turns.

I'll save a lengthy review for if it ever gets out of early access.

The devs seemed to shoot for SWAT 4 with modern conveniences and it's, mostly, that. Shooting generally feels pretty good and your AI teammates seem a lot better at defending themselves, which is mostly what I wanted evolved from S4.

As it stands, you get a decent loadout selection, a number of missions with maybe some additional mission types each, and co-op. If you want to go nuts on getting the best times and scores on the existing missions, particularly with friends, the game is totally set for that at the moment. It's definitely missing the narrative, atmosphere, and bot loadout customization form SWAT 4 though.

The devs, routinely, post blogs about all the cool stuff that's supposedly coming down the pipe (customization, mission changes, new gameplay systems, management and campaign mode, new animations and refinements), but apparently they've had a habit of this for a couple years now and it could definitely turn into an over-promise situation. Beware.

Also be aware that you can have bot teammates or human ones, not both for some reason. My friend bought me it to play with him and we found out we could only be a 2-man team unless we wanted to let randoms in. Change that and it's instantly a much better game.

Currently I wouldn't call it worth $40 unless you live for tactical/milsim games and go into a state of euphoria choosing between a dozen different AR platforms.

Interesting, insightful, atmospheric, intelligent... just not much fun to play, nor am I certain this had to be told in the medium of video games.

GOOD STUFF:
+ What everyone cites: it presents a lot of salient points on personhood, life, and sentience. Just like the reality of the matter, they're not good questions if you're seeking concrete answers, but great ones to expand your thinking.
+ The storytelling was very well paced, going mixing up the orders of events and eventually bringing them back altogether for the beats and conclusion. Well-placed information across terminals and logs to give you a picture of events at each station.
+ A good gradient of thematic grayness that'll have everyone reserving their own opinions on the game's presented philosophies.
+ Environments are incredibly detailed, especially for 2015. A little samey with the visuals, but usually a few new vistas at each checkpoint.
+ Sound design is superb. Music suits the game very well.
+ Mostly intriguing characters and converging plot lines.
+ Puzzles were pretty basic but usually intuitive and give the game a modicum of interactivity; I only had to look up a hint for one of them.
+ The "antagonist" force is both visually well designed and thematically evocative.


DID NOT ENJOY:
- I'm not really sure why this had to be a "horror" game, and it often hampered the experience. The horror elements aren't frightening, often just really annoying and maybe slightly nerve-racking. They feel like "we're the Amnesia devs, so we need to put some monsters in what's essentially a walking sim, I guess." The worst example of this is after you find the prototype of the MacGuffin and there is a series of rooms and hallways where you need to find some items to progress. A creature stalks the halls, and the "gameplay" is just waiting for his pathing to work out to allow you to where you need to go. The most baffling part is there are audio logs here for environmental storytelling (audiologs you have to be stationary to listen to) and the creature can still chase and kill you... do you want me to listen to the story, or do you want me to run away from Slenderman? Certain horror games use the genre either as a cut and dry upfront scare-fest, or to convey something narratively... this game doesn't really do either.
Yes, there is a "Safe Mode" difficulty to avoid this aspect of the game, which makes me wonder why they bothered in the first place.

- The main character seems naive beyond the necessity for a fish out of water character; it takes me out of the story how accepting he is of his mind-bending situation and his agreeability in helping out the other character. He does get better as it goes on, though.

- There is a DoF setting that can't be fully disabled. I was looking up how to disable it, and came across several posters recommending you leave it on for the atmosphere... but I fail to see what they were seeing. Persistent minor annoyance.

- Movement is generally pretty sluggish, which can particularly be annoying when traversing long stretches of nothing or having to flee monsters. Some of the physics objects like panels and valves are really finicky to interact with. Again, notably egregious when you're being chased.

- I don't feel the MacGuffin itself was explored nearly enough. You find out pretty early on in the story about a plain of living different to our own; I would have liked to see them get much further into how the human mind would adapt to this "reality," if it even could at all.

- Interactivity is kept pretty bare to the point I'm not sure this needed to be a game; combat doesn't exist, the puzzles are mostly trivial, navigation is pretty linear, the "avoid the monster" sections are mostly just crouch-walking and waiting, and the medium of interacting with the game is not meaningfully utilized to convey the story... Think, a story about artificial existence and personhood... don't you think you could utilize the medium of gaming for some meta narrative? They didn't. SOMA's best aspects could have easily stood as a book or movie in my opinion. At the very least they could have hammered home the themes of free will by having what few "choices" you make matter or having more of them, but they never affect the game going forward.


OVERALL:
I enjoyed experiencing SOMA's world, and its greatest strength is obviously its narrative. Unfortunately, I think I would have basically gotten the same effect from watching a video playthrough of the game. I don't think any of its brilliance is lost by watching the game or playing it through in Safe Mode, especially since it omitted the opportunity of player choice which would have been a perfect pairing for this type of game.

GOOD STUFF:
+ Pretty fun. Just the right amount of micromanagement. Reasonable talent tree.
+ Actually seems balanced. Strong, but not OP, which is a miracle for a DLC career.
+ They handled the legacy weapons well: simply recoloring all flames to be blue on necro and the Scythe flames to be red on other careers is an easy solution for thematic respect.
+ Skeletons are shockingly respondent for a Fatshark product. They'll usually go where you want them to and do a great job of agro soak.
+ Scythe is simple but impactful. It's middling on Necro herself but superb on Unchained. Fun special attack.

BAD STUFF:
- Currently the skeletons teleport back to you when you move too far away from them. This eliminates their tactical flexibility of either guarding points far away from you/clogging chokes you're fleeing from, or chasing down elites/specials. Either the teleporting needs to be removed, or at least the trigger distance GREATLY increased.
- The staff is not that great. Its primary fire is fairly weak. Its secondary is like a discount Brain Burst from Darktide except in that game there are no penalties for venting or high heat. Its heat generation is enormous in this game and Necro has to sacrifice a skeleton to vent heat without the normal method of hurting herself. Yes, you can play around it, but the legacy staffs just gel with the career so much better because you don't have to sacrifice your main class draw as often, the skeletons, and they don't generate nearly as much heat in the first place... oh, and the Brain Burst doesn't remain locked on if you move your crosshair from the target, a bit disappointing.
- Curse of Undeath talent is ridiculously OP.
- Cosmetics parsed out into their own DLC once again.

Overall still a good career, but ironically even better if you don't use the bundled weapons. Adjust the skeleton teleportation and the staff and I'd call it an excellent buy.

A worthy spiritual successor to Blood that emulates both its strengths and problems

(Played on Very Hard, the hardest difficulty available for first playthroughs. My experience is through that lens).

GOOD STUFF:
+ Combat is often pretty solid. The entire arsenal is powerful and usable in one situation or another. It usually feels like your fault if you die.
+ Several non-weapon combat interactions like throwing objects, shooting explosives and lanterns, dodging, and deflecting projectiles are a great addition.
+ A few modern touches to the genre like a weapon wheel for the huge arsenal and locational damage were great additions. Too many boomer shooters fall into the "all new thing bad" trap.
+ Most level design is extremely creative functionally and takes advantage of verticality, as well as a few sections being nonlinear.
+ The sound design is stupendous, especially for the guns. The C96 is just perfection.
+ Solid tone and theme. The letters found in the environment give fun context to a game that would survive without it. Shame they're kinda easy to miss.
+ Great gore and dismemberment.
+ Music is generally just serviceable but a few tracks are very energy-wrought and well composed.
+ Despite their annoying DOT/disorientation effect, the telekinetic Ghosts are a really unique enemy type.
+ Better options menu than any AAA slop I've played recently. Ran perfectly.

MIDDLING:
+- I'm not sure how I feel about the weapon upgrade system. On the one hand, it encourages you to actively hunt for the secrets as the Weapon Part reward is far more tangible than just a health or ammo dump, but a few weapons feel kind of weak and limited unmodified just to perpetuate the system.

NOT SO GOOD:

------ As a Blood successor, I'm going to judge it like one, at least in the places it clearly took inspiration.
- I'm sorry to say, the Dynamite, while good, does not hold up to Blood. You have to go through an awkward individual click to light the dynamite and a second to throw it. The worst part is that while it explodes on impact with enemies, it does not do so on the environment, so what could have been a satisfying splash from a long toss or around the corner/over something can miss completely.
- The shotgun too is alright, but even fully upgraded doesn't compare to Blood's general workhorse weapon.
- Both the weapon and enemy variety in Blood were more creative. Beyond the cultists, almost all the enemies in this game are "big juggernaut melee monster," save a couple. Also, no aerosol cans or voodoo dolls here, just guns.
- Your character is mute. Those Caleb lines go a long way, especially the laughs and screams.
- They took the wrong lesson from Blood in that they made hitscanners the most frequent enemy in this game. On Very Hard, it encouraged a lot of squatting behind cover and quick peaks, and even with dodge the ability to negate their attacks was pretty inconsistent. Shooting as many as I could long-range was often the most viable playstyle as they chip through your armor/HP ridiculously quickly. The Shotgun cultist was probably the most egregious with his ridiculously long range and inconsistent damage values... at least they all paused to reload predictably.
------ Blood aside...
- I'm not sure the artistic term, but the texture work was just a tad too busy or artifacted or however you'd say, which you can make from the screenshots. It gave the game a muddy look in spots and, combined with many dark areas, made readability of enemies tough sometimes. The worst is how cultists have different weapons depending on their robe colors but more often than not that was pretty hard to parse unless you were in their face.
- The environments make huge use of brown and you spend plenty of time in dull locations like in mine shafts or the middle of forests.
- Again, maybe a difficulty issue, but ammo drops could be pretty stingy in some parts. I'd say I found like 60-70% of secrets on average and didn't often miss but I'd usually see half of my weapons empty.
- Campaign's pretty short thus far. It took me maybe just shy of 6 hours to beat the main bit, Chapter 1, on Very Hard.

OVERALL:
If you like Blood or this genre of shooter, it's extremely solid and definitely a lot more appropriate of a Blood sequel than Blood 2 was. I look forward to the future chapters. I think if the core arsenal was refined, dodging and strafing being more reliable against cultists, and readability/visual variety were improved, it could be a solid 10/10.

Oh... and let the dynamite explode on impact for God's sake.

A quaint little not-quite-Strategy game that's got at least few dozen hours of.

GOOD STUFF
- There is a boatload vanilla units in the game, almost all of them fairly unique. They have a lot of goofy abilities and sound effects that make them fun to discover.
- The factions vary a lot and include a lot of iconic warriors from history. I enjoy seeing how a bunch of cavemen and Renaissance musketeers handle Greek Hoplites and pirate carronades.
- Lots of campaign missions that give reasonable challenge. The game's somewhere between a Strategy and Puzzle game: not true Strategy since you have minimal control over your units once you set up your counter-formation, not a true Puzzle since there's no one set solution.
- The art style is very simple but pleasing. The lighting and textureless look gel well together.
- The game exalts in its ludicrous nature.
- Not much music, but what's there is thematic and pleasant.
- User workshop to add more units, factions, maps, campaigns, etc. UI is pretty clustered and I don't know why they don't have a proper Steam Workshop, but it's functional enough to add more free content.

NOT SO GOOD
- The many variables of the wobbly physics means the strategy element can be eroded, and a build you deployed that works one time doesn't work another just because of how your Wobblers decided to fall. Particularly nightmarish for the no-fail run achievements.
- Taking manual control over units is a mix of sometimes too powerful, sometimes too janky to make work. Your friendly AI might not target the enemy correctly so you need to manually control a unit to shoot the proper targets, which might be the only way to make your build work. Simultaneously, certain units, especially melee, glitch out on themselves with their gummy limbs and can become impossible to move/attack with.
- Occasional clipping into maps, can make fights unfinishable or units just get stuck and render themselves useless.
- There are a couple units like the Standard Bearer and Flag Bearer that change the movement behaviors of your otherwise "place and let them attack" units. Definitely not enough. Some more manual group control could have potentially made this a lot more dynamic of a game.
- Your mileage will vary, but the Sandbox mode itself the game touts doesn't have much going for it. Just setting up two opposing unit compositions, watching the results, and going "huh, that was neat." In particular, the game really chugs if you try to deploy more than 100 units, depending on what they are.
- They hide secrets around the map for you to discover to unlock units, but it can be a bit of a pain to find them without a guide and still a chore if you have one. It's particularly annoying not to have the top tier units earlier on because you didn't go treasure hunting. There is, however, a toggle in the Options to circumvent this for the campaign.
- Unit balance is tenuous. Many could use a stat or at least a price change to keep the sandbox more dynamic than "stack Hwacha and Cheerleaders."
- Haven't touched Multiplayer but people say you can see your enemy's units during deployment, so that utterly eliminates any point to it.

OVERALL:
Fun and cute. The missions will tax your brain a bit, especially on the ones that restrict which units you can deploy. I personally found it enjoyable to just blow through all the campaign missions, but feel I've gotten all I could get out of the game afterward.

DLCs are more and more expensive for less and less content, and we very seldom see any of that money go back into the game itself:

- Sieges have been bad since Warhammer 1 and keep getting worse
- Enemy AI is an absolute joke
- Old races stagnate with minimal updates
- More and more and more bugs crop up every patch

Reminder that this company has been charging for BLOOD EFFECTS for years now.
They have zero respect for you beyond what you can pay them. The hilarious irony is Warhammer is their BEST treated Total War. They unceremoniously dropped Britannia, Three Kingdoms, and Troy when they weren't making enough money, and they will absolutely do it to this and Pharaoh the second it's not as juicy to milk.

The full buy-in price at this point is INSANE and will keep getting worse. Play something else.

The climbing is bad and the combat is really bad, so I figured I could forgive it if the stealth was really good... it's not.

I don't mind if a game is organically difficult but Styx is just really annoying. Even on the lower difficulties, guard line of sight is super sensitive and impossible to gauge. You will get caught in dark shadows, around corners, or atop platforms that would be safe in any other game in the genre. If you get caught it's almost impossible to slip away and your best option is generally to just let them kill you to respawn at your last checkpoint. From what I've read, the over-sensitivity of the guards gets WORSE, not better as the game progresses.

I've played through games like Thief, Dishonored, and the Arkham games with minimal issue and even though I'm no stealth master, I could tell that the controls and mechanics of this game were going to be user-hostile from the start.