Recent reviews by RivalEvolution

No. Just don't.

Only game I've ever played where a geologist can be the strongest character. Also lets me overthrow capitalism. 10/10

I liked this game a lot. Just remember that it helps to be patient! If you try to hit enemies that shoot projectiles at every moment in between their shots, you will mess up a LOT.

There's lots of things to appreciate about this game! The developer twins at Twin Trouble did a great job to imagine scenarios for the protagonists to fight back against the fascists for this game, with inspiration from actual events. First, I'm gonna talk about the game itself, and then I'll talk about the politics. This game is "unapologetically antifascist" in the words of the devs, and I would say that my experience is extremely reflective of that. Ignore the Ben Shapiro fans that have written reviews. They are just scared and angry, as usual, because the right's politics operate off of fear/anxiety and hatred.

"Smash MAGA! Trump Zombie Apocalypse: Civil War" was designed to be played on many different types of platforms, so the controls for mouse and keyboard can be kinda janky. For example, the camera movement is pretty jerky and sudden (it might give you some motion sickness if you're prone to that). It also took me some guessing to figure out how to get off bicycles (it is the R key). Some text comes and goes faster than I was able to read it (but most of it wasn't very important, such as "You picked up pizza/bricks/fancy sneakers!"), maps can be difficult to navigate, and more. The help section of the menu, which you have to access by clicking on it in the top left of the screen, suggests visiting the game's website (smashmaga dot com) for more info. It didn't answer all of my questions, but it helped! A lot of the text that I couldn't read in time is available there, in addition to a lot of other statements that are made in patch notes and stuff. Do yourself a favor and start with the Vaxx Site level, then to Campus Showdown, Autonomous Zone, and then roll from there however you like. I felt like this would help you get accustomed to what the game is like without accidentally picking Dualing Protests and then being completely overwhelmed and confused. Another few hints I can offer: if you lose all your health you switch to controlling a different resistance member (so it isn't game over necessarily), you cannot shoot masks through allies or objects, there is a map you can check out in the pause menu, only destroy vehicles that are identifiably aligned with the fascists (which are marked as police vehicles or will have things such as Trump 2020 stickers on them), and don't break throw bricks at shops that are labeled "black-owned" or similar.

Full disclosure, I have very similar politics to the developers. I highly recommend checking out either the game's "Recent Events & Announcements" tab of its store page for the developers' comments about the Civil War update to this game, or you can check out the game's website. I think that will shed some light on what the hell is going on in this game because I can imagine some people downloading it and finding themselves in over their heads a little bit. This game is a work of fiction stemming from the USA's current/recent sociopolitical reality, so don't get your underwear in a bunch like some of the other reviewers who seem to think that this game "promotes terrorism" lmfao. Your characters are haphazard, impromptu members of a popular resistance front seeking to violently resist a totalitarian crackdown on the broader public by several different ideologically-aligned groups (including the Proud Boys, MAGA supporters, the police, Evangelical Christian fundamentalists, white supremacists, and others) that are seeking to impose conformity of their ideology onto everyone else. I feel like I'm rambling a little bit so I'm just gonna cut myself off right here and say that this is a fun game to pick up and mess around with for a while, and the game's and the developer's websites (www dot smashmaga dot com) and (www dot twintrouble dot net) have some thought provoking information if you'd like to learn more!

I give this game an autoclicker/10

Its like "Papers, Please!" but it has more mechanics. That does mean more ways you can mess up, and more ways for the game to be tedious, but this demo seemed pretty promising overall!

It really is a lot of fun! My favorite part would definitely be the movement mechanics, and any gun with "Party-Time" (because I like confetti) or "Recoiling" because it gives me the ability to fly, which is pretty awesome and pretty hilarious.

The only thing that really throws me off is that it makes my computer heat up like crazy, even more than Destiny 2 does... and I can't figure out why. I tried avoiding any weapon with the adjective "Spider Queen's" which certainly helped, but did not solve the problem at all. For reference: I have an Omen laptop, and I use a cooling stand with one big fan in it. I know that laptops are notorious for overheating, but something about OMFG makes my laptop get really hot in the space of half an hour. This doesn't detract too much from the experience, though.

Originally, I bought this game because it released close to my 19th birthday, so I didn't really expect much from it, but I have never regretted buying this game for a second. It continues to be enjoyable and exciting, and I haven't even beaten it yet. Sometimes I'll go weeks or months without playing it, but every time I come back to it, its just as fun as I remember. (And the soundtrack is awesome!)

It definitely starts off as kinda challenging, but you'll get used to it. (It really helps when you figure out how to destroy projectiles with any of the characters' abilities, too.) The levels in between bosses can be a little dull sometimes, but the boss fights are challenging, intense, and very climactic, but they never felt overly unfair.

Personally, I would definitely recommend Vile to a friend, especially if they are interested in roguelikes! :)

I really enjoy this game. Nice and quick, fun and simple game... at first.
As time goes on, you realize that you've suddenly found yourself in a bullet-hell race war, and that you're probably the bad guy.

10/10 sword is best weapon, gun is for nerds

I really like the Moon. It is a creepy, unsettling area to explore, and I just can't get enough of Eris Morn (whose voice actress performs fantastically here). Let's get into the important stuff, though (or scroll to the bottom for the tl;dr):

ACTIVITIES
>Nightmare Hunts
Become a Ghost Buster. In all seriousness, this gamemode isn't particularly exciting. but not overly tedious either. You basically kill the semi-ethereal version of a significant enemy leader that has died earlier in the game's story. I could be misrepresenting this, but from my memory, the excitement/novelty of it wore off quickly. I was able to complete it solo, though, and that's saying a lot because I suck at this game.
>Dungeon = The Pit of Heresy
Halfway between a strike and a raid, dungeons are pretty damn cool, and I enjoy them, personally. Notably, this dungeon (and the one from Forsaken) has been updated for season 13, and will reward you with Shadowkeep-specific gear that has not been "sunset", which basically means that the gear's power is capped at a level that is no longer viable in new content. You will need to consult a guide video on Youtube if you want to learn how to complete it solo, or you will need to join one or two other players with experience in Pit of Heresy, since dungeons give minimal/no guidance on what the next objective is, which is an intended feature.
>Raid = Garden of Salvation
This was the first raid I ever completed, so I have a soft spot for it. Raids in general are pretty cool in Destiny 2, but they almost always need to be done with a full team of six players, which can be challenging for some people to try out, particularly those who do not have friends who play Destiny 2, those with social anxiety (like myself), people with speech impediments, and people who are deaf (because raids generally require a lot of voice communication and coordination with teammates). Garden of Salvation is, in my humble opinion, a lot of fun, has a VERY strong exotic weapon to acquire from it, it's aesthetically unique armor set looks fantastic (and raid armor often possess higher stat totals than usual), and the unique weapons it drops can be really good (on top of the fact that none of them have been sunset).
WORLD EVENT
There is a public activity that is always available, but I can't remember its name right now (Altar of Sorrow?) and I am writing this review at 4:30 in the morning so please forgive me when I say that I really don't want to look up the name right now. All you need to know is that it is extremely accessible and easy to figure out (read: brain-dead simple), and it is mostly just "shoot all the creepy bug dudes that come out of this glowy portal-thing, and stop the tough ones (yellow health bars) from getting to the other glowy portal-thing that they are walking towards" and then after several waves of that you fight a boss. It is more of a test of patience than a test of skill, but both of these elements are still somewhat present when playing this activity. I'm only including it in the review because I am pretty sure that it was given the ability to reward players with non-sunset Moon gear from the treasure chest that appears after defeating the boss.

STORY
Bear in mind that I do not have firsthand knowledge of what it was like to experience the story near release date. As far as I can tell, it is acceptable... but Eris Morn's commentary makes it great to listen to, which is definitely its most redeeming quality, to me. Not many people seem to particularly like it, however.

GEAR
At the beginning of the first season post-Beyond Light's launch, all of the gear from this expansion was sunset, besides Garden of Salvation's unique loot drops, and the exotic weapons/armor (exotics will never be sunset), effectively making this expansion almost completely worthless for newer/casual players, and certainly not worth its price tag. For the moment, the select gear that has been reintroduced since the sunset at the beginning of Beyond Light makes this expansion worth your consideration. Should Bungie decide to reintroduce more of this expansion's gear in one way or another, or come up with a different way to support Shadowkeep's content, then I can recommend this expansion.

CONCLUSION:
If you know for sure that you will be spending a lot more time playing Destiny 2, then this expansion is definitely worth buying, but only if you already own BOTH Beyond Light AND Forsaken. It is cool, and Eris Morn is wonderful, but it is (lunar) eclipsed by the other two currently available expansions, without a doubt. Hope this helps someone! :)