Recent reviews by Calza

Sony has been defeated by the helldivers, mission accomplished. Another triumph for managed democracy.

Good value for your money. Spend the coins wisely.

I like this game a lot! It's like Rainbow Six Siege if that game didn't go to ♥♥♥♥.
It's a hero shooter at its core, but what that means is you have multiple counter terrorism teams from around the globe with operators that fill one of four niches: Assault, Medic, Support, and Marksman. You earn credits through objective to buy operators, and to level them up.

There are PVP, PVE, and PVPVE gamemodes available. All of my time played is with the PVE portion, and I can say the difficulty is fair. Point Sweep can be failed if your teammates aren't paying attention, and Special Operations needs a well oiled machine to beat consistently. Spawn memorization is key here.

If you don't like the free-to-play, pay to upgrade operator system, Caliber+ is available for ~$30, essentially buying the game and making every operator you buy max level. You have to tweak some of the upgrades, but it's significantly cheaper in the long run. I don't recommend upgrading ops past level 8 unless you really like them.

Great coop game made by Russian devs. Failure comes easily, and success is earned through skill and clever teamwork.

This game is actually surprisingly fun, tense, and well put together (for what it is). It's a looter shooter, with a heavy emphasis on zombie killing. Level 1-50 is just learning the game and enemy variations, but level 50 is where you focus on your build and optimize it. Seems rather coop-friendly, I've felt no obligation to spend money on anything except the gold membership, which very useful early on.

At 40 hours into the game, I must admit I am impressed. I have played plenty of MMOs, MMO shooters, and MMO RPGs - this one is definitely among my favorite. This is why:

I'm a STALKER fan first and foremost. Played all 3 games, numerous mods, identify as Clear Sky. This, while not one for one, is faithfully inspired by the series in ways fans will recognize right away. There is, however, enough new and different content to make veterans curious.

The writing is surprisingly clever, funny at times, and leaves you to fill in some blanks. Not all quests are kill and fetch quests - some involve murder mysteries, prophetic dreams, selling snake oil, and riding the line between order and chaos.

The gunplay is good. Hits register like they should, kills feel satisfying, and reloads (typically) are well animated. Item variety is diverse, and there are many mechanics at play, introduced bit by bit to not overwhelm. Combat is frequent and the presence of PvP gives you a feeling of anxiety like in DayZ or Tarkov. You treasure what you loot because you can lose it, and feel satisfied when you return to base with it.

I like it! The difficulty does appear to jump dramatically as you get to new zones, but armor progression makes this curve smoother. Just remember this IS an MMO: progress will be much slower by default.

80 hour edit: Lots of running. Atmosphere remains tense. Lots of PvP encounters, you learn safeish routes with time. Lots of content from the russian servers haven't been brought over yet. Game handles well, even on older hardware, occasional crashes though. Main story quest rewards are unusually generous. Still feels good.

110 Hours: Beat the main storyline. Some of the boss fights were not well thought out. The pacing on the missions, basically puzzle after puzzle, is exhausting. The reward is an endgame armor though, so you get to wear the achievement. Definitely not a game for everyone, but if you love Stalker, and don't mind PVP involved in it, you'll do fine here.

I wouldn't recommend this on the basis of how much of a time sink it is, requiring a lot of commitment on the part of the player. This is definitely an MMO, and with it comes the pros and the cons of one. Unless you have friends to play with, going in solo and without the starter pack is gonna be a test of your patience.

Also, there are some deviations from typical STALKER gameplay that can be annoying to deal with. Examples include losing loot on respawn, random and invisible teleportation anomalies, PVP or buffed mutants (take your pick), wonky and bizarre economy, lack of transparent outside help, and a few noob traps. I will give it the credit of being atmospheric, when it isn't trying to break your immersion that is.

It is difficult to stress how overpowered this "starter" kit is without some inside knowledge of what makes it so good.

You get a VSS Vintorez sniper rifle with a PSO x4 scope, and a Jackhammer automatic shotgun that don't expire. Both have considerable durability, and the Jackhammer is considered OP for fighting mutants - it has a scary one shot range with 10 shells on tap. You also get a TT pistol, which isn't as good, but the magazine you get with it is extended.

You get so much ammo for the three guns that you can drown in it - at least 2.5k in 9x39, 12x70 00 Buck, and 7.62x25 AP. The cans the ammo comes in are weightless, so you can carry them with you everywhere until you need more ammo.

You get a gas mask that is pretty decent, if a bit ugly. You get a backpack that lets you carry an extra 15 kg, and you start with the strength to carry about 38kg. It'll be a while before you get something better.

You get a bunch of consumables, ranging from beefed up antirads and healing stims, to antiglue. You get a handheld metal detector and a pocket metal detector, and both run on 9v batteries. You'll also get a bunch of 9v batteries.

You'll get a 2x experience boost for 2 weeks. You get 1 million in rubles, which is ♥♥♥♥-you wealth at the beginning. (You have to sell the Parcel to Ivy to get the money.)

You get a suit that has great resistances across the body, from your feet up to your neck. You get a bullet resistant helmet. You also get a more efficient model of the artifact grabbing tool, one that takes AA batteries rather than 9v. These three do eventually expire, after a month and 3 months respectively.

This kit also goes on sale for 60% off, so if you play this game at all, seriously consider this kit as a time saver.

A very atmospheric roguelite that isn't afraid to throw a curveball or two your way. The risk of character death makes everything you do meaningful, and you have to carefully balance being fast and being cautious, since your clock is constantly ticking. Loot you find is purely to increase the chance you'll finish your run successfully, but don't fret the first few runs you do - they are but fodder to pave the way for the volunteers afterward. As Project Zomboid said so poetically: this is the story of how you died.

Edit: At 50 hours, I've hit a point where there is nothing else to unlock, but I can't think of a game like this one, and if you like this kind of gameplay at least buy it on sale. Con Artist is a great team.

A very good, casual 4X game that builds upon elements from the original. The balance of weapons is askew, favoring cannons more than other weapons, but otherwise it's a fun experience that encourages messing around and trying silly ideas. If you like space strategy, this is a must-have.

If you've played or enjoyed Swat 4, you'll like this, since it's basically a remaster. If you haven't, Ready or Not is a police simulator, where you're sent in to deal with numerous situations gone wrong. You get an array of weapons to choose from, be it less lethal or full, and your objective is to neutralize threats and save civilians in the way of danger. A slow placed, immersive first person shooter where ♥♥♥♥ can hit the fan within seconds.