Recent reviews by Justus Bladetooth

Genuinely a hit I never saw coming, and it's good even this early in development. I played during the NextFest demo period, and while I'd had my eye on this product before then I tend to be skeptical of these sorts of survival focused games. They're particularly hit or miss as a genre for me; even as someone who has managed to get some fun out of Zomboid I'd chalk that to friends more than engagement.

There's a point to that ramble: I am genuinely one of those people who is very very hard to please when it comes to survival crafting focused games. This game was a brick to the head in the BEST way possible. I played the NextFest demo with two friends, and solo to the point of beating all of the provided content and was sat wanting more.

Even in the Early Access period, which admittedly does have a few bugs, hitches, and is lacking all of the included content: This game is 100% worth your time either as a game to play with friends, by yourself, and even if you're normally a bit against things like Zomboid. This game is a lovely balance between difficulty, and survival. It creates breathing space, it lets you explore, it doesn't just throw you into the deep end, and it makes sure the game becomes difficult at YOUR pace, not its.

Along side that is some peak dark humor, this game is that bittersweet hilarious mix of the retro 90s era 3D design with some genuine moments of tension, fear, and chaos. You'll be make dumb jokes about being a member of the SCIENCE TEAM and calling out Gordon. Then everything changes, you and your buddies are huddled in your little fort made of scraps, holding your basic weapons, and jumping at the shadows moving in the halls.

I cannot say this enough for the price tag you're getting what feels like a full quarter of the whole game already in Early Access this early, and an amazing experience out of it. Buy it, play it, laugh, and run for your life!

Like Stellaris, Civilization, and D&D had a weird offspring that got lost in the Paradox development studio for a while before coming out as shocking surprise hit turn-based strategy gem. I heartily recommend this for folks looking for something akin to CIV V, without going that far back.

So, let me lay all the cards out onto the table and then we can move forward on this review: I genuinely went into this game with the mindset of it being a typical Bethesda made game. I also went into the game knowing that people were crucifying this game across the internet because it apparently wasn't what they personally felt it was. Rounding this out, I will say I have sunk a disturbing amount of time into their other games.

All of that in mind, I cannot fathom the hell people wanted out of this title. They laid out everything this game had in the pre-release material. It never was aimed to be Elite Dangerous, Star Citizen, or EVE Online. It made that whole thing abundantly clear from the beginning.

As well, this game is really as deep, or as shallow as you are willing to make and engage with it. Many of the systems seem to be built and made for players to engage with at their own level of interest. You want to make big space homes, and have fun building your ideal colony on a far flung world? There's the outpost system staring you right in the face, ready to be used, and enjoyed. Don't really care about that, then there's no secret hand twisting your arm and going "Well you'll fail if you don't." Most of the systems I've engaged with in thirty hours as of writing have all been designed around that mentality.

Another two cents is: It's hip to hate Bethesda games because for some weird reason people seem to keep thinking of all their titles even a ways back as these...Somehow fading bastions of the 'true RPG experience'? Even as far back as Morrowind, they've aimed to be Adventure-RPG games, key word. Adventure. Exploration. Wandering from place to place engaging with enemies, clearing dungeons, and such.

If you want a game that is the Bethesda Adventure-RPG experience honed to a razor edge, with love and passion poured into every ounce of making it the best one they've released to date? Buy Starfield. Otherwise, the door is there, take it as you want. I'm sure you can keep ranting and raving about how BG3 is the best RPG ever to exist ever over on Reddit. I'll be over here enjoying my game.

For a strange simulacra of STALKER's Zone as done through the eyes of a block/Minecraft themed lens...It's honestly not bad. There's some charm here, and the progression system is a novel idea if a bit grindy due to the sheer amount of resources needed and amount of maps needed to collect them from. Here's the big rub: The PvP system is stupid, as it stands. It serves no practical purpose in gameplay beyond stroking your ego as you can't get anything from other players beyond loose sell-fodder; which is good. Items like armor and weapons should be bound or else progression would be killed dead if you got unlucky.

At the same time it's just there as a gate to keep people from progressing quickly since all that'll happen is as a loner, you'll go to get the resources to get upgraded gear, get murdered by either a bandit, or bad luck from the AI. Then your bound loot drops, someone runs across it and yeets your bag into the trash and you're screwed.

Bandits aren't really much better as you'll be doing the same sort of exploration and grinding, but because as a whole the bandit faction picks on loners way more. Even if you specifically aren't looking for a fight, it's too late. You're the wrong faction, and so you'll get domed and looted...or just get bad luck by the same anomalies and have someone loot your junk and throw away your bag.

At this point, they either need to confine PvP faction interactions to specific chunks of the world, or retool the drop system so that ALL bound items remain in your inventory and all that drops is unbound fodder, ammo, medical, etc.

Ontop of this, while overall I'd rank the map design as good as the source, or even better than STALKER in some ways. Rostok is a awful design and shouldn't have ever been added. It's a central hub for BOTH sides of the coin, so what happens is bandits get domed by loners, and loners get camped by bandits. With either side getting screwed over and not having any fun trying to leave the central base of the game to actually play. Should just admit it sucks, and break it into a loner base at Dark Valley, and a bandit base over in Agroprom. There's even already places where it could easily be done and make logical sense.

As it stands, while I'll probably poke around this game with a friend because as it stands the options for a multiplayer STALKER like experience are basically just THIS. The moment options become better for a genuine Zone coop experience without xXx3dGyB4d1Tl0RdxXx shooting me in the back, or being screwed by my own faction because of bad luck with an anomaly; this Zone wanderer is turning around and not looking back fondly.

Bugs, frame drops, poor map design, generally baffling game choices, and a severe lack of care all make this entry a plethora of good ideas, thrown together in a blender that just didn't work out for a multiplayer game. The weapon progression system is a novel idea that could be done in a better game, for better results. As it stands, even just playing this on the free beta was the most fun only in DMZ, which has its own fair share of issues revolving around balance choices, and yet more problems getting the game to run stable. Plus as usual, you've got your casual as hell folks like me, continually being feasted upon by the sweat-swamp people who 24/7-356 the game, because the idiotic matchmaking system sees you do well in one match, so clearly you need to be playing against them without ever having an 'even out' phase. You'll either swing to folks who don't understand what a firearm is, or the people who will eat you alive. No middle ground.

The peak of easygoing but solid enjoyment, don't sleep on this quiet little hit.

It's short, it's sweet, and in these times? It's like a mug of hot chocolate for your soul. A heartwarming little story told entirely through the boxes you unpack, and something you need to experience. The price can be a little steep at first glance, but this is a genuine passion project. Support this indie dev, and maybe just maybe...take a little of these good vibes around the world with you.

A rough around the edges, but ever closer to the classics MechWarrior game, that makes it really really fun to hop around in a giant stompy deathbot, and crush people poorer than you.

An adorable game, with a great little story, amazing characters, and an awesome soundtrack. I cannot recommend this enough if you're a fan of classic 3D style collection platformers, or even just looking for a game to forget the world for a few hours. Plus, if the main story, and DLC aren't enough there's the community workshop with its fair share of fun and amazing levels.

I love, and hate this game; the combat is slick, the weapons are snappy and reactive, the new vault hunters are all interesting to play...but then the story gets in the way with copious use of sudden terminal stupid, the villains are both utterly unlikable and bloody toothless, and to round it off the changes made to the manufacturers are at best mediocre and at worst render the whole lot completely worthless.

Since steam only allows yes or no to buying, let me say this: This game IS worth buying if you can get it on sale. Otherwise, it's not worth the price tag. There are better ways to spend that money.