Recent reviews by Serith

Given Sony's backing off, I'll now give this a proper review. I do recommend it with the understanding that the game's consistently unstable. One patch to the next any number of crashes or issues might show up. In addition, as a solo experience the game is potentially enjoyable but a very different style of game then the co-op play.

That being said, the game's actual core co-op gameplay experience is fabulous and playing with random folks online usually isn't too bad. The general array of weapons and stratagems are enjoyable and even if some end up being more popular then others, most will serve their purpose and allow for folks to figure out their own playstyle. The enemies are varied enough between both factions to remain engaging time and time again, even if the map objectives can be a bit repetitive at times.

The game needs an equivalent to the "Rock and Stone" button from Deep Rock, to form better solidarity with random players and the sense of community. I look forward to the continually developing war and the new stratagems/weapons that come in the future.

As long as Sony stays out of Arrowhead's way and lets Managed Democracy be spread, it should stay a good one.

I'm not too far into the game but my first impressions are negative. For one, "context sensitive" exploration is incredibly rough, having your dodge button also be your sprint button which is also your climb button barely works when there's no exploration, but when there's a focus on poking your nose in the environment and a fixed camera, not having a specific button tied to jumping or sprinting or what have you is incredibly frustrating.

Then there's the combat, which feels like someone learned the wrong lessons from other stamina combat games. Lotsa enemy groups which attack in staggered patterns, and don't flinch from your attacks unless they are one of the weapon abilities (which require a resource), or via parry. This means dodging isn't nearly as useful as it is in other stamina games, since avoiding an attack doesn't open up your target as another enemy is now swinging at you as well. Parrying also doesn't feel gratifying as it doesn't really open up anything particularly good, since another enemy can just attack while you're performing it.

So what that leads you to is incredibly tedious crowd management where you circle the crowd, wait for all enemies in question to sorta get stuck on eachother or initiate an attack, which leaves you open to actually attack them, and then immediately retreat. Repeat this process until you have enough energy for a special weapon attack to do actual damage or until you slowly whittle down the enemy group.

Or the other option, which is just to cook a lot of healing items, and slam your face into combat and just facetank damage while you spam into enemies while they spam at you, but at that point then you're just playing an old ARPG wearing the skin of a new one.

Long and short of it: the combat lacks any satisfying impact, the exploration is unrewarding and frustrating due to contextual movement controls, and the game is... technically proficient in terms of art production but the character design is seemingly intentionally hideous which is... fine I guess? Just a strange choice that isn't my bag.

Simply put, I know nothing about boxing really besides the kind of stuff anyone might know through diffused knowledge from hearing about it and playing Punch Out... Do not treat this game like Punch Out. Fights may seem short, a few rounds at 2 minutes a piece.

The first time I played this game my arms were dead afterward. I tried the sparring partner on easy, and knocked him out. Okay I got the idea, let's get going on normal...

15 minutes later and 2 opponents later (fought the sparring guy and the first actual opponent on normal) and my arms were so spent that it hurt to throw punches... That man refused to fall, but I won by scorecard. My entire body is soaked in sweat, my arms ached for the next 2 days. I don't have much playtime, but that's purely because each play session has been a couple minutes of warmup, then one fight, then quitting before my arms feel like they are dead.

I have some minor quibbles with the game, but they aren't really worth discussion honestly. For the price, this is very well worth it, just keep in mind that unless you're an actual boxer it's not the kind of game where you're just gunna come in and beat some folks up... unless you just stick to easy difficulty. This game is exhuasting. I've had to end every play session with a shower.

While the game has some issues with regards to some bugs and somethings aren't quite done, it is early access and the developers seem eager and responsive to questions. I posted a bug regarding index controllers and it was fixed by the time I woke up the next morning.

That all being said, in terms of making a PC kart racer that is arcadey and fun, this is pretty damn good. Some awkward physics from time to time (kart flipping or moving in ways you wouldn't expect) but there's a good number of courses, quick easy to use multiplayer which fills empty slots with bots so you can get in a match and have people join in mid way. No voice chat at the moment which seems like an odd oversight, but it might be fixed in the long run.

I will say that the style of the courses/game isn't my bag, I'd prefer something a bit more fantastical/interesting to look at then normal racetracks, but this kart racer was clearly inspired by actual racing teams. Another negative is that while the built in music actually is all right, it seems like they don't have *that* many songs, so they reuse them for multiple tracks which makes them wear their welcome.

But as is, it's a solid buy at its price, plenty of content, decent multiplayer and the racing generally feels quite fun; looking forward to see how the game polishes down the rough stuff. Could turn from simply being worth and fun, to a really high quality game.

So I was waiting for them to release their free locomotion patch and they delivered in pretty short order so props on them for that… On the other hand, the game itself is in a pretty rough state.

I’ll admit I didn’t make it far enough into the dungeon to reach the next tileset, it was all cellar, but I’ll get to why that is. Despite that, within a couple floors I was running into some pretty obvious repetition in rooms, even on the same floor, which made navigating a bit of a tossup. Not that there’s much to navigate, the rooms are all pretty empty with the exception of an enemy here and there.

So the dungeon generation is pretty bad and repetitive, but at least you have the combat right? Well unfortunately it’s… well… A lot of people would argue they should use something similar to Blade and Sorcery/Gorn with their physics based combat, and while I can appreciate that, it does mean that you lose out on a lot of traditional gameplay mechanics and generally it’s hard to make high quality AI that put up a proper fight in that situation. That said, this combat doesn’t deliver. Generally the enemy will sit at exactly the range you can’t hit them, than do a prescripted attack routine (the same ones in the same orders) and when they are recovering after the routine you can hit them. It’s boring.

So the combat is boring, but I said I didn’t make it that far; so clearly there is an issue here, right? So I got to floor… 4 I think? And sure enough the enemies spiked in level. Their combat was still boring but now they had a ton of armor pieces to knock off, did more damage and had more health. Clearly the developers intention here is that now I die, level up, and start all over again.

I get that you want to entice replayability but just putting a stat wall is uninspired. Making the game genuinely difficult would have been really enjoyable but dealing with big bags of health that I can only attack when it’s “my turn” due to the combat system is really unpleasant. I feel bad reviewing it with such short time played, but given the low quality of the experience it was pretty necessary.

So, I have a some issues with Rec Room as it is, but the addition of Stunt Runner is just too much of a laugh for me to stay mad at it. That combined with them allegedly implementing a method of forming "Clubhouses" soon which allow you to create entire sub communities inside the game (such as an All VR community) I think the game is on the right track.

(Note: This review has been edited, which is why the comments seem irrelevant. I still think without the clubhouse feature there's a lot of issues with divergent communities and developer focus, but despite that the product is still enjoyable if you have a set group to play it with, rather then just playing with built in matchmaking.)

All in all, I am a soft mark for this kind of game. A VR MMO is pretty much exactly what I'd like to see. If it handled any one part of being an MMO competently then I'd be all over it. If the combat felt good I'd just enjoy it for that. Were the game visually appealing, it could be fun to simply explore an open world with others and see the sights. Could it manage a feeling of progression with equipment and stats that felt meaningful.

It fails on every mark, everything positive I can say about this game is just stuff that comes naturally out of it being a multiplayer VR game and is in no way benefited from being in this game in particular. And considering some of those other multiplayer VR games also have at least pretty okay gameplay and in some cases are free, it makes this game's $40 pricetag seem ludicrous.

If you're like me, and you really want a VR MMO, you see this as the only option and you think "Well I may as well try it." Don't. That's what they are depending on. This was made to be "The First VR MMO" for a reason. They set the price that high for a reason. They know there is demand for a VR MMO and rushed to make this to fill that demand without any capacity to produce a high quality product. People who have extreme nostalgia for some early MMOs may get some enjoyment out of this, but by no means is it worth anything more then $5-$10 if that.

It's hard when you want something and you at least want to give it the benefit of the doubt. Don't. I made the mistake. It sucks, you'll have to wait for someone else to make it. It could be years. Still not worth it.

While it has a bunch of novel interactions, and a few moments that are enjoyable; this game is a real disappointment.

The trailer actually doesn't depict the primary goal of the gameplay which is actually like a collectathon, gathering money and runes. Things like, feeding horses, cooking steaks aren't actually relevant to gameplay or anything like that, they are just in there to be in there, and that's fine, but the other aspects of the game are very lacking.

In addition the game is very short, I got near full completion in about 2 and a half hours, and the starting price was $25.

If you enjoy climbing around a few rooms to find runes for the sake of finding runes, then maybe consider waiting for a sale; if you are looking for an RPG, this is not it.

I had fun tossing myself around in zero g, and the first couple times I floated around an abandoned ship, looking for resources was actually enjoyable. But when I started repeatedly seeing the same ships pop up and not even being able to scavenge without my ship getting hit by rocks repeatedly, it went from “Oh man, my ship got hit! I need to hurry back!” to “Again? Really? Can’t I get a moment to just scavenge these ships?”

It’s too easy to break even on food and oxygen even without putting much effort, and the only major goal you have is to build a shuttle to escape which involves collecting a lot of resources in a fairly boring manner. If it was a game about trying to survive by going around a bunch of ships, barely clinging on than it would be neat. Instead it’s a base building game where the base building is too easy, and the method of getting resources is boring and repetitive.

This game makes a strong first impression, and if you are coming here for another VR Archery game, then you're in luck! Because the game heavily incentivizes ranged weapons. More then half the enemies are meant to be taken out at a range and I'd argue the game as a whole is designed around the bow.

However, I came into it expecting an RPG, and more importantly I saw melee weapons. If you want to hit things with a virtual sword, the game seems to hate you. Ranged enemies run away as soon as you get close, and while that makes logical sense, trying to chase after someone while swinging at them and there are other enemies about is just a bad idea. Melee enemies are at least willing to fight you, but are pretty boring to fight since they can guard until you parry an attack. If you like waiting for an enemy to attack, blocking them, then hitting them a single time (maybe twice if you get lucky!) then boy will this game be what you're looking for. And this isn't getting into the suicide bombers added recently, or certain enemies that have unblockable attacks.

All in all, it's not a bad game, especially if you want another Archery game. It looks good, sounds good, and has an OK amount of content for the cost. But if you are looking specifically for an RPG, not an archery game, give the game a pass for now.

This review is made during early access and may need an update based on how the game evolves during early access, but I'd be surprised if anything changes. I posted in the forums about an exploit which trivializes the melee combat and the devs reply seemed to be that he was uninterested in it as an issue.

Edit Add:
(I'd like the respond to the developers response below, I didn't notice they made it. The exploit I was talking about was described in detail and I provided a video showing it. It has nothing to do with the "dazed" state they speak of. There's about a 5-8 frame window after an enemy has recovered from an attack, dazed or no, which you can hit them again, repeat until the enemy is dead. They stated it was due to the difficulty setting, I checked and it works on all difficulties.)