Recent reviews by <color=#70C><sprite=5> Engineer

I've always enjoyed these domination/war style games, which require you to capture a whole field/board. The fact that Hexteria with its 6 sided hexagonal tiles can replicate those kinds of games in a simple and functional way, it's certainly impressive.

The Campaign allows you to understand how the gameplay and its mechanics work as you proceed further and further (And of course, there's a help menu to refresh yourself if you do forget anything too), and allows you to experience thrilling and sometimes infuriating 1v1 duels against the AI, where you will be trading back and forth tiles until one of you has complete domination. It also offers an in-game shop which you can use coins that you've collected from Goals/Challenges to assist you in some trickier areas. This helps out with some players who might just need that additional change to the gameplay to help them out.

The Multiplayer lets you play with up to 5 other players (Or even AI bots) for even more fun. Again, it's very tailor made since it allows people to join via public/private lobbies which hosts an array of gameplay options to make each round different and random too. In addition to that, the player slots can also be replaced with Twitch users instead. This allows Twitch chat to get involved in playing the game by voting on the tile they would like to rotate.

The integrated Level Editor will also allow you and your friends to create your own level designs that can be customised to a very big degree. You can draw out a level layout, specify what tiles you would like to use, what directions they start in, and also choose a theme to go with it too. With Steam Workshop support, you can also upload these levels for other players to use in their multiplayer games, and hopefully gives them ideas to create their own designs too.

The music and the sound effects certainly provide the player with a relaxing and chill vibe, which changes depending on the theme that is currently on. It's certainly something that you will remember when you play the game, but enjoy every time you hear it. The replay system is also handy if you want to keep any of those games and to perhaps look back and learn from some mistakes that you might have done (Or if you wanna show off that possible 2 turn win to your friends of course).

Overall, Hexteria is simplistic and effective at what it offers, which is turning hexagonal tiles to dominate your opponent(s). It includes options to play solo or to play with others too, with the addition of creating your own level designs to share with the community. Simply simply lovely! :)

And his music was electric...

EDIT (26/02/2023) - It's not so electric anymore I'm afraid. When this first got announced years ago when I was still at uni, I was absolutely over the moon to hear about this game coming out. What I truly loved alot was the support the devs had and the fact they are also a part of the community on things like Discord and that.

In terms of gameplay, it genuinely is alot of fun with each attempt being different (Unless you are literally that person who always selects "Command/Sacrifice/Swarms" all the time - Yes I'm look at all of you guilty ones). But gameplay is great, however it started to get just a little repetitive.

BANG, update came out for new characters, new items, new levels, mmmmmm. This helps when they're dropped at the right time for sure to bring back existing players and to grind another 400+ more hours. Ignore those people who think "Oh we want updates ever weekend on the hour", that's just never gonna happen in the sense that developers just can't do that (Not to mention it'll overcrowd the game too early on for new players too, which is already a bit of an issue with all these items now).

So you're wondering why did I vote this down after what, 2200+ hours of dedication to this game? At this point, many people should know the frustration that's going on with this game and the community around the game. Quite simply put, nothing is happening anymore.

When SOTV came out back in March 1st 2022 (Yeah that was a year ago, but we'll get to that), it dropped the biggest update the game has ever had and as a result, they made it paid DLC which is fine honestly and inline with many other titles out there that do that (Dead Cells for example). Update delivered for the most part, just a couple hiccups here and there and some things were fixed via bug fix updates. But now it brings up the problem as of now. What's going on with the game right now?

From a team that was constantly giving updates for their game (Which of course isn't their game anymore, because it's gone to Gearbox. Lovely...) to not giving anything regarding Risk of Rain 2 right now for such a long time (Even the Dev Thoughts recently have had no comments about the game, but they just love promoting this remake of the first game on the ROR2 pages just to sort of say "Oh we're doing something else now".

Right now I'd like to also bring up the console users into the equation. Because funny enough, there are people playing on consoles these days too. Who would've thought that?! But to be honest, they've had a situation similar to the likes of Monster Hunter World (I'm not sure if the same is said with MHR, I haven't had the time to look into it) in the sense that the game comes out on one system and then comes on another system, but falling behind on updates. This in itself is already a problem because of the fact that it splits communities apart and the prospects of cross-play are thrown out of the window.

For ROR2 to put it into perspective, their last update for console was August 17th 2021 and it was just the Anniversary update and bug fixes (That PC users got back on March 25th 2021). Since then, they have not had any updates at all, not even fixes as far as I can see. Whereas for PC users, they received all the updates including SOTV that released on March 1st 2022, and our last update for that was April 19th 2022 which was just more fixes for SOTV.

So just to sum it up. Console users have been waiting as of today, 558 days since their last update (Whether this is content or bug fixes, etc). PC users have also been waiting 313 days since their last update (Again for the same type of update mentioned). Console have not had SOTV for 558 days, and there isn't any definitive answer whether they'll be getting it anytime soon. But even if they did, I think most people have started to drop off from console because of the lack of updates. I would even say the same for PC too (Yes, you can argue there's a modding community with so many mods to "enhance" the gameplay. And to be fair, many of those mods are fun. But it doesn't work for console users, or people who lack the modding experience on PC).

The big question here is...

"What is going on?"

Unfortunately, I don't feel that anyone's messages or questions regarding this to the developers are being heard at all, because all we see now is just hype for the ROR1 remake/remaster. Looks pretty, but what about the ROR2 playerbase, or are they just abandoned now? Doesn't make sense right now, considering ROR2 is one of the biggest titles I've seen come out before (Especially when not many people knew too much about the first game).

If there's nothing happening with the game anymore, then please just let us know. If something is happening, then update us again and tell us what the current ongoing situation is. Be transparent with the community and not walled off from them. Or do we assume the worst and think it's another B4B situation (Moving on to another game after a short amount of time). You nailed the early access for this game, but after release, it's been a mess.

I may continue to play this, but I have hit my limit with it really and you can't feel good with this when you know there's no more support for it (Again, console users have been waiting what, 1 1/2 years for any "kind" of update at all. Is the game fun? Putting the dev side of things aside...not really anymore.

Started bugging out once I launched it. Had to close it via Task Manager.

While this is likely due to it not being supported on newer machines, it's still not great since it's preventing me from playing again.

Hilarious...

An expansion to a game that has a low playerbase of around 2k players. Running out of ideas are we at those meetings?

If you enjoy fighting around in artbots, then sure this is the game for you. But the damage is already done to the main game so I don't understand why they're making this as a sideline (Originally paid for until they realised that they're weren't getting the attention they wanted).

But it still stumps my mind. So you don't charge players to play Robocraft on the PC version but you do for the XBOX ONE (And when this came out, you also charged people as well)? Ok, sure. You're the "devs" after all

By the way, don't put Robocraft in the name of the game if you're not able to make anything.

First set of levels - Hey I'm getting the hang of thi...oops, I died. Not to worry since I don't do it that much

Next set of levels - Hmm, this level is becoming a bit of a pain now....

Last set of levels - WHY AM I DYING AT THE START OF THE LEVEL AGAIN AFTER PLAYING IT FOR 15 MINS??!

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬.


In all seriousness, a fantastic game made by the same developer who made Nidhogg.

Gameplay - It slowly introduces you into each game mechanic individually as you progress to which it combines them later on to give you that bit of a "bang your head on the desk for 20 hours because you are stuck on the same level" challenge. The mechanics force you to actively think and switching to the right colour for the specific gate. I actually played the original version of the game so I knew what i was getting myself into but wow, this full version is superior.

Music - Flywrench's soundtracks contains some gentle but booming beats which will keep you focused on the game (Probably...It did for me). I'd have to say that this soundtrack is up there with some other popular games. Favourite song has to be "Kuh Lida - Left Lane Right Brain".

Community - The level editor is an awesome addition to add to the game as it allows other players to anger others by letting them play their "impossible" levels. Not to mention that the developer himself also created some additional levels to which I haven't played as of yet (Still cooling down from some of the intense levels in the main game) but I'm certain that I'll need some paracetamols for those when I play them.

If I had to give the game a rating, I don't think I could as it's that unique and enjoable, numbers don't mean anything and I believe that it's an experience that everyone should explore themselves and find their comfort zone with. Another of life's adventures. Cheers for the fantastic game.

Update
For the past 2 1/2 months, the game has turned from what was a promising experience to a sloppy and uncoordinated mess. While many players have brought up the fact that cheating has increased dramatically, my concern is with the developer himself who in my personal opinion "Just doesn't care". He fails to address any of the bugs and issues that the communities have tried to bring forward (Both on the official forum and on the steam community hub) and that doesn't give us anything to look forward to.

Will these problems be fixes in future updates or not? That's what many players would like to find out but the fact he isn't informing us of these issues makes us believe that the game is being left on its own. All the updates that have been happening are just extra weapons being added to the game without first addressing the more major problems with the game. The time I had with the game before was great but it's turned to s**t now.

TL:DR - Game is buggy. None of the issues being addressed by the dev. Just sugar-coating the game with unnecessary updates that doesn't fix the issues.

Guess I'll stick to Worms from now on.







Review as of the 26th May
If you're a fan of the Worms genre, then this is for you (Yes, you right there. The short one on the right).

The fact that you start off with a limited amount of weapons is great as it allows players to adapt to each one and feel more comfortable before moving onto a new weapon. While the game is still in early access, it's done extremely well during it's time as well as constantly getting updates for new content and bug fixes.

My only cons is that their official forum is crap. Bad attitude that basically doesn't permit any fun whatsoever. Don't bother with it. The other con is that cheating is still a problem and needs to be solved as soon as possible since many players are using it which deters players away from playing again.

Out of 10, I give the game a solid 8/10 and my personal thumbs up (I know you can't tell if my thumb is pointing up but trust me, it is.)

This isn't what I expected at all.

Pros
Soundtrack is alright. It's got a semi 80s neon vibe to it (It's a shame it gets ruined if you car slows down since it slows down the music which ruins the mood.)

Cons
Dreadful controls with no controller support. (Used an xbox 360 controller and while the steering worked, I couldn't boost no matter what bind I used for the Boost.
The plot of simply driving forever until the girl dies isn't exactly exciting or thrilling.
It's just a constant loop of the same things with no changes whatsoever.

You might think that the price is probably worth the shot but trust me, it isn't. The thing was that this game seems way too similar to another upcoming game and I thought it was this one. Guess I was wrong (The other game I was thinking of was Power Drive 2000).

TL:DR - Bad controls, bumpy mechanics and no real plot to it. Only use from it is the soundtrack (Which still isn't 100%)

"In the beginning were the Words,
and the Words made the world.
I am the Words.
The Words are everything.
Where the Words end the world ends.
You cannot go forward in an absence of space.
Repeat."

Bad port is bad port.

I got it while it was on sale so no huge loss there but that doesn't cover up how poor the game is.

If you're going to play this, play it on the Wii instead.

[Gameplay aspect] It's truely an amazing gameplay experience. Growing up with the original Geometry Wars was something I could remember and when I found out there was going to be a 3rd game, the reaction on my face was out of this world (In a good way of course). I find myself to enjoy anything that rains bullets on anything and Geometry Wars 3 lives upto to its past reputation. Amazing.

Unfortunately, it's currently being ruined by players who wish to cheat their own score just so they can be the best (In their own minds). So I'm just playing it casually at the moment until they sort that out. It was fun years ago with leaderboards and highscores but with this generation of 'pathetic simpletons', we can't experience that 'as much as we did' all those years ago.

In the end, I care about the gameplay and I have to give my full recommendation to whoever considers purchasing it.