Recent reviews by Don Quixote

It would seem spiritual successors to Stardew Valley are all the rage these days between Roots of Pacha and Sun Haven as well as Stardew itself still receiving content updates there is actually competition on the market for this little niche. Does it do it better or worse? I think I have completed enough of the game to provide thorough thought as to why this may be a better purchase.

Pros:

+ As far as the meat and potatoes of the matter goes, which is farming, the game arguably holds far more variety in what you can grow due to the game embracing its more fantastical setting as opposed to Stardew, and you have different crops from different areas in the game you can grow as well. More over, the game has a simple skill tree in which you can level and grow with perks to improve whatever occupation you prefer. This provides the player with more options as to what they can do from the very beginning and encourages them to explore different avenues outside of just growing crops.

I can only best describe the skill tree design as a Swiss army knife. The game does not specialize in one specific thing, but rather focuses on doing a handful of things and doing them all fairly competently.

+ Exploration is slow, and at first you may think you have discovered everything the game had to offer until it slowly opens up into new areas through progression. Unlocking new areas is slow enough to get you into a rhythm of things, but never so slow you get bored to the point of feeling trapped. This game pretty much allows you to experience everything the game has to offer at your own pace, which I can greatly appreciate.

+ Collections are more satisfying in my perspective as a result of the aforementioned skill tree and specializing into different areas whether it be fishing, mining, farming, or even slaying monsters. Like Stardew they are still random drops, but they are all associated with different occupations encouraging you to try different things rather than just fish all throughout your experience.

+ Characters in the various towns are a lot more colorful and less two dimensional when compared to Stardew's roster. There are more NPCs, the writing is typically more endearing as you build relationships with those characters, and overall they have a lot more to offer in terms of replayability if you want to build stronger relationships with characters you previously had no immediate interest in.

+ Combat is still simple like Stardew's approach, only with slightly more variety and a lot less clunky. You can spec into either ranged or melee, with magic being a combat role in between the two that you swap back and forth with. Spells can grow stronger and become more interesting as you level up your combat branches which, in my opinion, was all that was needed to make combat entertaining without sacrificing focus away from other aspects of the game.

+ The visual style of the game is all in beautifully made sprite art, which I think predominately looks good all throughout the game. I think the only thing that really suffers visually is the individual character art as they look pretty rough around the edges and proportional detail can be inconsistent. Otherwise the game looks good.

+ Sound design is serviceable. Not terrible, but nothing to write home about. As for music it's also fine, but I just put on my 1988 jazz playlist over the game's soundtrack and have much better time with that while mining, fishing, or farming.

Cons:

- The main story is really generic. A council of dragons that watch over the different cities protecting them from potential dangers until one of them decided he wanted to lead an empire to rule the world or whatever. Since the game has a "take it at your own pace" attitude nothing is ever urgent, which is why I find a slightly serious main story for a game like this to be rather contrasting to the game's overall presentation. In other words, evil dragon? Demons? I just want to fish.

- Player character customization is still really lackluster even after launch, with some of them having bugs that have continually been neglected such as the disappearing eyes on the Elemental race. Some races have more customization options prioritized for them while others don't have as many, making player customization between all seven races uneven.

- The game does a terrible job of explaining things in the beginning, and if you move forward too quickly without looking things up you will be swimming in content you don't know where to begin with, or hitting a road block as you hadn't progressed enough in your skill trees to be at that point.

- The writing can have some Tumblr moments at times. It's not the most egregious stuff I've seen, but if you are allergic to it that can potentially ruin your experience.

At the base asking price of $24.99 (and currently on sale as of writing this review) I can highly recommend it. You get several hours of content to chew through, ample replayability and different ways to experience the game, and the overall experience is chill and therapeutic. It's a game you can go to when you don't want to do anything really intense, but you still want to be entertained.

I can't really recommend it from my personal perspective. Compared to the previous Baldur's Gate games it just falls flat as a single player story driven experience, and the game's plot was further ruined for me when a friend summarized it as the fantasy equivalent of going to California to get an abortion, which is far from being wrong.

Pros:

+ The co-op aspect of the game was done well with different players being able to participate or lead scenarios even without the host.

+ With mods the character customization is great, but that's really a plus to the community.

+ Combat, despite what others say, is an improvement over the original Baldur's Gate games, but I am willing to say it's really just a matter of taste. If you're used to a modern DnD session it's really no problem.

+ For the price asked, I would say the game has a fair amount of content for what you are paying. The world is big and there is certainly quite a lot to do with a decent amount of variety in quests.

Cons:

- Due to high fidelity visuals of today it robs a lot from what you could do with art style. What I mean is, the game does look hyper detailed and you can see the pores of your character, but I find the environments to be mostly boring to look at. The game's color palette is also lacking in much variety either being a warm set of browns and muddy greens for outdoors and eventually pitch black to grey in other areas.

- On the topic of visuals, without mods normal looking people seem to be a complicated issue game developers continue to struggle with. Many of them look weird or off putting, and even the characters presented to look incredibly attractive just have weird facial features. Again, it can be fixed with mods, but I'm getting tired of fully priced games having absolute mutants representing people, but the 15 year old kid on summer break with no pay and a little bit of coding experience can make normal human beings.

- Character creation without mods is abysmal with there only being four body types in total which is just buff or skinny for male and female with only a handful of facial hair styles. The faces are, once again, all off putting with the exception of maybe two and the rest are all weird looking. I feel like I can only make 2-4 characters that genuinely look drastically different from the other, but not by much. The only extra component you have to your character creation is your Vitiligo and that's it.

- Companions just suck in this game. Gay David Bowie that wants to suck your blood pretending his personality is deeper than it really is, gay goth ♥♥♥♥♥ that wants to step on your balls but can be "Trad Wife'd" later if you so choose, a dark elf woman who wants to rip your balls off, another woman that wants to step on your balls and is always angry because we can't get to California fast enough for her abortion, but she's green...

Gay black guy that made a pact with a demon so he could play pretend to be a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ version of Zoro, gay wizard that eats all of your loot so he doesn't turn into a Chernobyl incident, gay skinwalker that can shape shift into a bear to rail you in the ass, a gay Tiefling but she has a demonic Ford engine built into her chest and is borderline retarded, and lastly you can recruit Minsc and Jaheira from the previous games, but that just made me want to replay Baldur's Gate 2 over this MCU writing room slop.

All I have left to say on the companions in this game is that they're just horny all the time. Their personalities are neither endearing nor appealing. Men are moping losers that put on a good face but need a peen in their ass or their ♥♥♥♥ to get wet in order to halfway function as people, and the women (with the only exception being Karlach) may as well all be the same person as they operate for the most part as massive ♥♥♥♥♥ to the player character.


- The plot is very simple, you have a parasite in your brain and you need to get it out. The "subversion of expectations" is that you can't, and the game will present you with possible ways of getting rid of the parasite but all of them fail spectacularly while usually punishing you with a debuff or even death for the attempt. The only attempts that yield anything of any value is with Volo and Omeluum as they give you a magic item in return for failing the Cthulhu abortion. It gets even better when you realize past the first act of the game, the game completely drops the whole brain parasite thing as the powers that come with it do not come up as an option in dialogue.

My thoughts? The game was rushed out to release and there was way more to this game that was supposed to be there, but got cut and as a result you get a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ending with the illusion of player choice.

In conclusion, this is not the block buster title everyone has been making it out to be. I have played many story driven RPGs in my life time, and I can confidently say the only thing it really does that is unique is the online co-op. Player choice is almost non-existent in the story, but as long as bear sex and killing NPCs is on the table people will think it's the most innovative thing since sliced white bread. Of course, I am talking about the same people that thought No Man's Sky was a scam on launch but if Bethesda does the exact same thing with none of the improvements that came later, it's suddenly pioneering within the industry.

Pick it up on a good sale or play the first two Baldur's Gate games, that's all I have left to say.

I know I don't have many hours on record, I completed the campaign and sorta left the game behind for years. I was happy to see the game was getting support after the whole kerfluffle with the original devs, but after what has happened recently I kinda wish it was left forgotten.

If you haven't heard, the new devs in charge have removed content from the game or have outright censored scenes in the campaign. If you openly complain in the Steam forums you will be met with a ban or warning, and if you started a thread it is guaranteed to get locked. I personally don't care about the missing panty shots, but removing cutscene art, removing voice lines, alternate color schemes missing, unironically censoring the bad guys for looking like bad guys under the excuse that it's all "problematic" by a select few's ass backwards standards of today is straight up criminal. The fact that people are defending this with the broad stroke that anyone who complains is a coomer or straight up accused of being pedos is just downright idiotic, and a clear sign of why the games industry is as wildly corrupt as it is right now.

An Activision CEO could shoot a baby in broad daylight and there'd be some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ whale saying it was the baby's fault for not dodging out of the way.

Here is my question for the brain dead boobs that think this is for E-sports and Twitch guidelines: Who on this earth is going to play the campaign from start to finish or look at the art gallery during a live tournament? If you can't think of an answer, it's nobody!

People paid for a game years ago and now that game is being edited top to bottom all in the name of redundant American activism. I guess American feminists must have defeated misogyny in Islamic Middle Eastern nations if they're over here taking the time to painstakingly remove panty frames in a fighting game released a decade ago. 50 points to Gryffindor!

If anything, this should be another text book example of why digital distribution is not a great idea as legally you don't own anything, but you were happy with that at the time, right?

I wish there was more to Steam reviews than just thumbs or thumbs down in these particular cases, as I do not believe I can accurately provide my full impression of Black Mesa. However, I can highlight what I liked and didn't like based on what was accomplished with the original Half Life and what was attempted here.

Pros:

+ Level design and aesthetics have blended almost flawlessly with very little of the original game's level design being compromised all while making the Black Mesa environments feel real and lived in by human beings. Fighting in the office areas of the facility gave me some brief memories of playing F.E.A.R, so if you managed to pull that out of somebody's mind while playing I think that's a good sign you got your lived in environments direction down to a tee.

+ The aesthetic change of Xen needs its own point as I believe the Crowbar team have done an excellent job of taking what was originally a bunch of green low poly islands floating in nothing into a vibrant and diverse ecosystem that seems plausible for organisms to live in. They didn't have to go through the trouble of giving Xen a completely new makeover, but they did, and what was done in the first half was brilliantly executed. Especially the horror-esque environmental story telling with the stranded science team.

+ Sound design of the guns are more than satisfying as they carry a nice punch to them, even the energy weapons have a nice crackle to emphasize power behind them. But, at the end of the day if your shotgun sounds meaty and it's fun to shoot you know you got the sound design for your FPS just right. Aside from the guns and a few environmental examples, The rest are just the generic stock audio of the Source Engine.

+ The soundtrack is really well composed as it is a collection of mostly atmospheric electronic music that kicks in at particular points throughout the game, which I think actually fits the setting of Half Life quite well. When the soundtrack isn't somber it does have some really good "action packed" songs that also work well when applied to the right scenario. There is not a single track on the OST I do not like, but I will talk more on the application of these songs in the cons.

Cons:

- Despite the praise I gave earlier to the level design, the inclusion of so many physics objects have, on many occasions, gotten in the way of my enjoyment of playing this game. Sometimes in the middle of a fight I got stuck on pieces of debris or the Source Engine would have a conniption fit and a physics object would damage me. The original Half Life's combat focused very much on staying mobile in a fight, but because of the overwhelming amount of random nonsense that can go flying or you could get stuck on can slow a firefight down to a crawl.

- On the topic of combat, the A.I for enemies is downright atrocious. The HECU Marines are no where near as agile or as smart as they were in the original. They will just stand there out in the open and shoot at you until you kill them, or they will all bum rush your position and stand there and shoot at you until you kill them.

Vortigaunts must be using a modified version of Half Life 2's A.I as they mostly run away from you upon teleporting in until they briefly remember they have a lightning attack they can throw at you. Bullsquids would often attack once and then go completely inert until they remember you exist, or sometimes they just stand still and do nothing, I have also seen this behavior with zombies a few times as well.


- While the music is well made, the application of some of the songs do not fit the situation that is visually happening. For example in the blast chamber when you're sneaking by the tentacle monster it plays this really loud action packed music that would be more appropriate for a chase scene or firefight. Other times it will play somber or atmospheric tracks during really heated engagements. There is also the issue where a track won't stop playing in certain scripted events until you have killed everything in the arena you are fighting in, which can take a really cool cinematic moment and completely drag it out into a repetitive slog where it is no longer nice to listen to.

- Lastly, Xen. While I did thoroughly enjoy the direction the Crowbar Team chose for Xen, towards the end of the middle portion of the factory stage things were just starting to overstay their welcome. I remember the original factory was long, but I feel like the team deliberately went out of their way to drag out more jumping puzzles. I don't believe it is as bad as the original's factory stage, but I don't think it was helping itself either by prolonging it. There were three separate points where I just got burned out of playing it and didn't want to touch it again. I completed the game because I actively pushed myself to, and that is not a good impression you want somebody to leave with your level design.

- The guy impersonating the G-Man was awful.

Aside from all of these negative points, I think it was a great recreation of the original and succeeded in what it sought out to do. I don't believe it's a great remaster of a timeless classic, however, as the combat and flow of things are significantly different from the original due to design choices and just, well, the Source Engine being a janky piece of ♥♥♥♥.

Definitely recommend it for the experience at the very least.

I'm just going to get it out of the way now, this is a console port from the early 2010's and it feels like it. The menus are terrible, the game has several optimization issues, and worst of all the story plays out like a bad B-movie, but if you are willing to look beyond those problems I promise you that the game is a lot of fun.

Pros:
+ The game's art style looks like a blend between a Balenciaga meme and a normie's generalized idea of what Cyberpunk looks like, with permanent Jarate Vision on. Normally I would just say this art style is stupid and has absolutely nothing to do with the original Deus Ex in any conceivable way, but it looks hilarious so I am putting it first place in pros.

+ While I am positive most fans of the sneaky stabby genre would say this is a really basic take on the genre, and I would agree, it has a simplicity to it with enough depth in how you want to handle things that make almost every scenario fun *coughtheprisonbasecough*. The game does not exactly favor one play style over the other, lethal or non lethal. Instead the game provides you rooms full of a handful of enemies or several and you have to figure out what the best method is of taking them all out quietly with what you have, or finding a cheeky way of avoiding all of them.

+ And this is a perfect way to shift into the satisfying gunplay as both playstyles feel great to play. If you want to snipe people with tranq darts or sneak up on a lonely guard with a tazer you can do that, but you can also bring a grenade launcher and forget this is a stealth game but instead turn the game into a cover based shooter. Sound design is pretty decent for a game of this time, the weapons look sleek and cool, and they all feel fun to shoot, and for a stealth game that is an A+.

+ The side quests are the best part about the game as I was thoroughly invested in all of them. I had more fun helping a Chinese prostitute flatten the brothel owner with a fridge than I ever did fighting the shadow government. Or when I assisted an under cover cop undermine the operations of a corrupt cop, then larping as a hitman to punch his ass back to the stone age. Or the time I was tasked with stopping the rat man from spreading laughing gas in Detroit's sewers because in his cocaine addled mind Not-Rush Limbaugh told him to.

Cons:
- The game is very poorly optimized with textures not always loading in properly, random frame drops for no logical reason, I had one crash I can't exactly explain why or how it even happened toward the end, the game just decided it was done and quit.

- Aside from those issues it's mostly fine, but the texture issues are what lead me to the next con. The game in specific areas have aged well, but in the hub worlds, environments where not a whole lot of thought was put in, the game looks like it is significantly older than it actually is. This can be quite the immersion breaker when the NPC you are talking with has PS1 hair but the rest of their character model is fairly detailed.

- The enemy detection is very inconsistent in this game. Sometimes I would get instantly spotted in a grate, other times I am entirely invisible. Sometimes I will be literally out in the open in a well lit area and nobody sees me, but then other times I will be sneaking by boxes and somehow I am caught. It's not a big deal if you don't play things risky, but in a stealth game I feel like the most important aspect of the genre is how the guards can see you, and I don't believe it was executed well.

- The only con I have for non-lethal runs is the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ situation you're put in when fighting bosses. There are no non-lethal methods of taking out bosses so any pacifist run you have going on is immediately put to an end on the first boss fight. Bosses don't count for pacifist achievements in this game, but I don't see how coming up with a non-lethal option for taking them down was out of the question during development.

- Towards the end of the game it really feels like the game is trying to rush itself to the finish line. You spend a good chunk of your time on a base out in the middle of the ocean starting completely from scratch. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this at all, but they barely give you enough resources to get by and you only have enough Praxis Kits on the base to prioritize augments you will absolutely need to progress.

It's funny because this portion of the game really overstays its welcome, but then you only get one location in Portugal then immediately leave. The difficulty has a abrupt spike once you get to the base then after you get all of your stuff back the game is way too easy at the end. I had so many gas grenades and jars of protein powder that the final act in Antarctica was a breeze.

- I love the part of the game when the funny Russian hacker man tells me the prisoners I just rescued from human traffickers are basically going to be executed by Belltower anyway, essentially rendering my choice completely null and void in a game about making choices. Or when Balenciaga provided me a Mass Effect 3 ending. Truly the peak of quality this game's conclusion has.

With all of these points aside I think it's a fun experience, and isn't one to pass up if you enjoy a narrative driven FPS with some diet-RPG elements thrown in. It's just not a very good Deus Ex game.

I came into this game with the expectations of a classic Total War fan, I knew very little of Warhammer Fantasy aside from the very basics of the lore, and after putting in 100 hours I can confidently say that this is one of the best Total War experiences CA has ever created, and possibly will ever create given the massive undertaking that is the combined campaign.

Pros:

This is effectively the Dawn of War for Warhammer fantasy fans as there is no other current Warhammer strategy game that even comes close to matching how much detail is in the game.

+ Fantasy creatures were almost flawlessly introduced into the Total War medium. There is a bit of a hitch with flying units as they have a tendency to get stuck on buildings or mountains during siege battles, and their pathing in general sorta sucks, but otherwise sending in a giant to smash an entire group of spearmen or a gate, or sending in warhounds to tackle range units is incredibly satisfying.

+ Players are swimming in choices for various builds so you never feel locked into only building your army one way. Want to lean more into magic and cannon units? You can do that. Want to just spam Nurglings? You can do that. Want to just hold up in your silly little fortress in the mountains and pretend you're playing the game? You can also do that.

+ Magic has added a crowd control option outside of cannons and trebuchets that provides spice to a long running formula. When I first heard about it from the first Total War Warhammer I was incredibly skeptical, as magic in my eyes would be way too over powered in any traditional Total War game. I believe CA balanced it quite well as it is devastating, but not so devastating that you would lose the entire skirmish over it. It is also limited in its use which balances it all out.

+ Plenty of faction variety and factions to choose from. With just the base game of Warhammer III it is somewhat restrictive, but if you were to buy all three games you have a pretty solid roster that can go far before running into the issues with DLC.

+ The combined map with friends is possibly the most fun I have ever had with a strategy game. It's not dramatics, it's not over exaggeration, I genuinely believe what has been done here is the future for Total War games going forward. If it isn't in the next game it's understandable, but I would love to see a remaster of Medieval 2 Total War with this game mode as I would never stop playing it at any point. As it stands this has been addicting to play with a group whether in free for all, teams, or co-op it's just fun all around.

Cons:

Unfortunately, this game does have issues. If it was just A.I pathing being wonky or innocent graphical issues that could be fixed I would have just left the review at a few gameplay gripes.

- Going back to the shared campaign, the connection is fine without a VPN if you're just playing with a single friend, but any more than that and the game starts to collapse. Long load times, disconnecting, gameplay slows to a crawl or even a complete stop for either several minutes. It's just unplayable in vanilla, but my friends and I have found that using Radmin VPN seems to have solved most of the issues. There are still moments when it slows down and every once in a blue moon you'll get a disconnect, but it is at least playable compared to not running it at all.

- Optimization for this game isn't the best I've seen, with even my new PC heating up at certain points for no reason, or the frame rate drops to really low points in the campaign map. As the near 300 factions die off it gets a little better, but not by much. I limited my frame rate through the Nvidia console and that helped with some of the heat issues, but every now and then it gets a little too hot for comfort. Skirmishes are perfectly fine and run smooth as butter though.

- Sieges are just awful, they're better than where they were, but still awful. Most of the time the A.I pathing doesn't know what to do, there's only one set of walls and they are piss easy to take from the defenders, and some factions work well defending or attacking, while others have a much harder time accomplishing both. They need more depth, more thought put into them, but it's so low on the totem pole I doubt sieges will ever see another improvement.

- There are a fair number of factions that need reworks as they are either boring or not well thought out. The Empire, for example, have a campaign mechanic where they have to save a special resource for random events, earning the favor of another Imperial faction, or confederation. However, once you have conquered all of the Imperial territories there is no use for that resource outside of the random events that hit you, which becomes a non-issue late into the game because you've built up so many laurels it no longer matters. Then there are the Norscans who are just pitifully weak, and the Lizard Men who are just painfully boring to play as their magical tethering mechanic is not only confusing, the benefits are mostly insignificant.

- While the DLC situation with these games have somewhat improved now that owning Warhammer III means you have access to the combined map, it's still really frustrating when you realize you have to not only buy the first two games for base factions, you have to buy lord packs if you want to complete them. This all adds up to quite a high price with the first Warhammer Total War still fully priced even after 6 years. Really, the only thing barring more people from taking the plunge is expense. This game could have been aided with something along the lines of a franchise bundle, but I doubt CA are willing to fiddle with this any further as it was community outcry that got them to make the current changes to begin with.

While I hope the issues are eventually resolved or mitigated through a few more years of post-launch development, I can still recommend the game despite the cons. It's fun, addicting, a good translation of lore and tabletop, and just vastly superior compared to all the crapshoot games 40k has been getting.

Downloaded the game for the stage, think to myself "hey, why not give it a shot at least? It may be fun!" I try it out for under 30 minutes and the game is constantly crashing to desktop. What little of the game I have actually played is just 'okay' probably better for playing on a phone waiting in the doctor's office than actually investing time and money into.

Then I see the shop and how useless Aether coins are, and in order to do anything with them at all you need tens of thousands of them in order to unlock something in the shop. Then I dig deeper and I found out the game is essentially pay to win as you can pay to make your cards stronger thus blowing everybody out of the water without a single brain cell necessary to play the game.

It's essentially more mobile game schlock with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ business model and I am sure plenty of consoomer whales to defend it. Either way, download it for the stage and then dump it. No point in handing it your email address when it's just a little time waster that doesn't take itself seriously, let alone you.

It's honestly funny to think this game may very well out last Killing Floor 2 with just how neglected that game has been. The fact that people are still hosting servers and there is still a healthy population of players goes to show how solid this game is.

Pros:

+ Allows for 6 player co-op and given how rare it is for online co-op games to go beyond the holy 4 player count this is much appreciated.

+ While the perks aren't as numerous or as defined as they are in KF2 they are solid and well rounded. Berserker is a bit trickier due to the choppy nature of the gameplay and collision is weird to say the least, but otherwise all 6 classes play exactly the same as they do in KF2 just without as many features. At no point do you feel any of them are redundant or underpowered.

+ Unlike most games which have you fill an XP bar and you get stronger, KF1 gives you challenges to fulfill to level up your profession. This can be something like killing 350 Stalkers or welding 35,000 worth of hit points on doors over the course of your play time. This isn't anything special by any means but it does make leveling up feel more rewarding.

+ The Gunplay, while not as smooth as KF2's, is still satisfying with meaty sound effects and surprisingly detailed gun models despite being on a modified Unreal Engine 2 from 2009.

+ The game has a darker, grungier atmosphere than KF2. It's like KF2 only remembered the silly British jabs in KF1 and confused that as its entire personality. KF1 is surprisingly dark both figuratively and very literally. It's difficult to see without turning up the brightness but you get the sense like that was kind of the point. The game is trying to look more horrific and terrifying while KF2 aims to be brighter and more approachable. KF1 is no more or less gory than KF2 and yet KF1 feels far more visceral as a result of its grittier presentation, so when there is silly humor it stands out a bit more.

+ This is one of the few games I have played that actually feature shotguns as useful firearms that don't require you to kiss the target before shooting. The shotguns are actually decent at mid range and deal an impressive amount of crowd control as God always intended.

+ Perhaps it's just me, but I feel this game is a lot harder coming back to this off of KF2. Not to the point of unfair but certainly a lot more challenging as the map designs are typically less open and Zeds can very easily tear you apart if you are alone. With that said once you start playing more open community maps you begin to realize how dumb the A.I is, so it really only works in tight confined maps.

+ That brings me on to the next pro which is the fact that this game is still supported with a workshop. So if you get bored of the vanilla maps you can start downloading community maps or build your own to continue the fun.

Cons

- This is unfortunately one of those games where the developer thinks bullets travel anywhere but the target you're aiming at so keep in mind that the recoil of the guns is going to take some getting used to. I understand it's for balance purposes, but there is just so much that gets in the way of accurate fire. Between the incredibly bright muzzle flashing, high recoil on most guns, AND the inaccurate bullets it's a bit excessive.

- To add salt to that wound getting scratched or hit by literally anything will result in the camera getting flung upward and a bloody jpeg will appear on your screen to blind you. Again it's not THAT big of a deal as the obvious strategy is to just not get in a position where you could be hit, but all of this adds to make minor annoyances that feel more cheap than genuine balance between the player and the Zeds.

- There is only one boss at the end of all ten waves, and this can get old over time. It's one of the reasons I kinda fell out of playing this game as playing against the same boss using the same cheesy strategies over and over again removes all intimidation the boss originally had starting out as a new player. KF2 fixed this repetition somewhat by introducing a handful of bosses that randomly rotate from match to match so things are kept fresh. As far as I am aware there is no way to mod new bosses into the game so the Patriarch is all you've got.

- DLC is rather excessive in its number. None of it is really necessary but at this point I feel like some of it could be added to the game for free like certain characters and the community pack given the fact that Tripwire have long since abandoned this game.

- There is no easily accessible way to create a private server outside of making a dedicated server, so if you don't want to hassle with that you're at a loss. However, have you really experienced playing online video games if there isn't some screaming Russian yelling out gibberish on a predominately English speaking server? And why wouldn't you want to play with friends on Nancy Pelosi's Insider Trading Club?

My overall thoughts on the game is that this is easily still one of the best co-op shooters to buy on the market. Of course, KF2 is fancier, it has better gunplay, and it has more content by comparison, but there is a lot more personality with this game than there is in 2. KF2 aims to be a live service game without much in the way of service today, meanwhile KF1 will probably still have people playing once KF2 finally shuts its servers down and Tripwire moves on to other projects.

Played for 38 minutes and the game constantly stutters for a second then comes back but with my camera pointed in a different location. The game runs smooth as butter aside from that issue, but it is incredibly frustrating.

The only solution I had found that works is by turning off your mic in Windows settings, but if you're like me who communicates with friends via voice chat then it isn't really an option. This is stuff that should have been patched out ages ago, and yet it wasn't. I also understand this franchise isn't exactly the most stable set of games in the world, but there really is no excuse for this.

From what I gather the game is practically abandonware as the developers no longer support the game. I can't really recommend the game if that's just how it's going to be. The game is also filled with cosmetic microtransactions and mobile gamey currencies so that kinda shows you the priorities of the game devs here.

Easily one of the best online co-op experiences I can think of. I came into the game with minimal, to almost no expectations for this game other than just dumb fun with friends. My friend group and I have become somewhat addicted to just the gameplay loop alone.

With 87.9 hours of total game time I can recommend this game to anyone looking for a game to play among close friends. It is also among the few games I would recommend even at full price.

Pros:

+ Gameplay loop never gets old, as the RNG keeps things fresh while adding its own challenges in traversing difficult environments so threats don't just come in bugs.

+ Unlike many games that feature RNG based level design the maps, for the most part anyway, have a defined route to them so you never end up in a situation where you run out of cave, or you run out of items so you can't complete secondary objectives as a result of the random generation. It also helps that if anything is in your way or out of reach, each class has a method of getting there either through digging, setting up a zip line, or building platforms so pathways getting blocked aren't the end of the world.

+ Enemy types are wide and varied each posing a threat to your mission in their own way. From grunts grouping up into large swarms to bum rush your position, to Glyphid Menaces sniping you from afar. The enemies don't ever feel like BS when they down you, as that just means you had poor team work. The bugs are just an incentive to speed you along the mission while giving a sense of constant danger, the real make or break is how you provide support to your team using your classes tools.

+ Missions come in all sorts of different game modes and length so being prepared and working with your team to ensure you all are doing your part in completing the mission objectives is key. I have never felt bored of any of them, as I feel the moderate random generation as well as having perfectly designed game modes keep things fresh and fun no matter how many times you do them. Honestly, the most boring one I can think of is a Morkite run, but even then on the higher hazard levels the challenge can still make such a mission enjoyable.

+ Classes on the surface don't feel too different from each other as they all have their own way of purging bugs, but it's the tools and how you use them that really contributes to the team. Creating zip lines and providing cover fire for players as the gunner, providing recon and light to your team as scout, creating platforms and defensive positions for your team when a big swarm comes in as engineer, to providing easy pathways for your allies as driller. Everyone is helpful, everyone can play in their own way, and the game allows for enough experimentation with weapon combinations and upgrades that it never gets boring.

+ My draw dropped as it is the first time I have ever seen a season pass model not only accomplish being satisfying to progress through, but given completely for free. The devs have promised no FOMO will ever be in the game, so any items you miss in a season will be available in random loot crates you can find while playing. If you want to trick out your dwarf, just play the game. Miss out on some cosmetics? Play the game more. This method easily puts every other game that uses this model to shame Halo Infinite . Good on Ghost Ship for not jumping on the industry bandwagon of screwing over their players for a little extra cash.

+ Game is still supported and will continue to see future updates for the foreseeable future.

+ DLC is optional and only features cosmetic skins for your Dwarves and their weapons. Pay for them to support the devs as a tip or don't and enjoy the game with its plethora of free cosmetics.

+ It's a game for Squat fans, if that isn't a selling point I don't know what is.

+ Games Workshop shamelessly ripped them off with the Votann so you know it's good.

+ Mod support, need I say more?

Cons:

It's honestly very hard to find them. Anything that could be considered a con could either be summed up as nitpicking, personal taste, or will be fixed in the future. I was going to say there aren't enough secondaries, but they have an update on the way that will introduce one new secondary weapon for each class. I was going to say colors are a little sparse, but there are 23 for the four classes to unlock and will likely have more added as time passes. I was also going to bring up the janky physics this game has, but it kinda adds to the fun of it all.

I would like to see more biomes, more game modes, more enemy types, the rival mining company expanded upon, but those will probably see updates in the future. I don't dismiss cons entirely, there are probably issues with the game I am overlooking, or may arise at a later point. What I can say for right now is that the game is worth your money, and if you are looking for an online co-op shooter this is as much of a must have as Left 4 Dead 2 in your Steam library.