Recent reviews by Sol//Haku

I thought this was going to be a casual 'get oil, get rich, and build a town'.

What I actually got was: "get oil fast af, and beat some garbage AI that overpowers you and if u make a mistake ur screwed lol".

Fastest refund in the west. It also looks like a mobile game.

Game is cool in concept, but frustratingly garbage in execution.

Early game is do or die, if you don't have a proper build before the 1st boss just restart your run. Hell, if your 1st relic isn't good, then just keep restarting until you get a good one.

Item bloat is an issue, too many orbs and relics not tailored to a specific build is what cripples crucible runs. You'll either have too much or too little. God forbid you run into the 'duplicate mirror' event.

Bomb meta, although fun, gets boring, and is the only effective meta you can crush through for the further bosses as they're not balanced whatsoever to the player's level.

tl;dr - it's good, but becareful of what you unlock.

As a person raised on the flash tower defense games this satisfies the itch of the 'replayable tower defense'.

It's great. The style is neat. The game also adapts to your towers, so always be on your guard.

Do be careful of what you unlock however, as it affects the chances of what you get throughout your play throughs. Don't go in willy nilly about the upgrades you unlock for your cards because they can hurt you in the long run when you see them for the 4th time in a row. Some towers are good throughout, others are really bad. Just keep in mind of what towers you need to unlock in order to progress. If you mess up this process you'll need to restart from the beginning as there's no option to not bring a specific tower and it's upgrades in.

Things I did as a Enchant+Resto Loop Enjoyer:

- Went to Markarth, stole all of Dwemer Museum goods and yeeted them all over the town, making it a uninhabitable and unplayable junkyard.
- Paralyzed everyone in Riften with Infinite Paralysis poisons. I now call Riften the Sleepy Rift.
- One punched every Dragon Priest, Serana's Dad, Ulfric, The Emperor and Alduin. (Miraak got lucky, but only for a second.)
- Married Serana (Through mods)
- Slapped the ♥♥♥♥ out of Delphine (she phased out of existence).
- Experienced the withdrawls of Enchat+Resto Looping through exponential crashing. As the average Enchant+Resto Loop Enjoyer does. With a smile on their face.

The only thing I wish I could do is learn the Dragon Language IRL so I can put it on my resume and impress my future employers. Or marry Serana irl. Either or.

The game is fun. Why haven't you gotten it already?

tl;dr - It's meh, could be better, but what can I say, it's a AAA company so I already came to this game with low expectations, but man.

- I have a AMD Radeon RX 5700xt, so my card might be dated on today's standards, and even on low settings I barely make up to 60. I have to use Optimization mods from Nexus Mods in order to get something of 75fps.

- The. UI. Is. Bad. Whoever developed this UI needs to be retaught on how to make UI's less bulky and hideous. I feel like I'm playing Vanilla Skyrim all over again and the fact that I have to mention mods on my first play through speaks miles.
- For the love of god, Get the StarUI mod. You'll thank yourself for doing so.

- Space Exploration and Travel is all just Loading Screens. The majority of it is just loading screens.
- This isn't Star Citizen or No Man's Sky. The moment you warp to a planet you get a loading screen, the moment you land, you get a Loading Screen. It's all Loading Screens to give the illusion of 'space flight'. You don't get to do a proper land, or proper take off.

- Space Combat is as simple as point and click. You either try to dodge or die. Skills make it feel even less impressive. Space combat Events are forced upon you, so be mindful of where you warp. Contraband Scans are also unavoidable in Faction Controlled Systems.
- Go to 'The Den' in the Wolf System or go to the 'Red Mile' in Porrima 3. They have a lot of creds (11000 to be exact) and accept Contraband.

- The skill system is mixed. I like the skills being presented in the open and accessible, but the grind and challenges to unlock them make them feel like a chore. Why is boarding locked behind a skill, and why (or where) wasn't I informed of any of this throughout my playthrough?

- Small techniques and skills that are not presented (ex: the boost pack double jump bind) or the presentation of certain skills are required to be unlocked (ex: Boarding enemy ships) to do things.

- Stealth is broken. It either doesn't work or it does, and it gets worse when your companion is around.
- Stealth Crits don't apply half the time, so expect your guns to not do much.

- Ground combat is basically copy+paste of Fallout 4: Spongy Enemies, unimpressive loot at even levels, higher level loot doesn't even satisfy.
- It's worse when you go out to higher level areas to grind for legendary loots, because you'll encounter a legendary enemy and they'll drop trash. Sure Starfield isn't a looter shooter, but I at least want something unique for my character instead of 'standard issue' grey rarity, especially if I have to go out of my way to get it.

- Colony Building and Space Ship building is just for show. It's nice, but you hardly ever utilize them to their full potential.
- Colony Building has you restricted to a single planet, and you're constantly traveling, so it's a chore to come back and forth.
- Ship Building... Have you seen the videos on youtube? They're either memes or really bad looking. It also takes a lot of inspiration to build a 'decent' and 'not trash looking' ship. I've tried. It's also VERY EXPENSIVE.

- I didn't like any of the companions. None of them were of any interest and didn't really fit my character's theme (I tried to go with Spike from Cowboy Bebop).
- You're restricted to the companions within Constellation and that one 'Fan', so it's already limiting to who you can interact or even romance with. This was the only expectation I had when I went into this game, and man. There's only 6 companions, and out of 4 that you can romance.
- The moment you do something immoral or illegal they instantly dislike you and leave your service.
- I chose Andreja as my companion, but with her background and how she acts around you it gets pretty annoying. But I also expected that due to Fallout 4's issues. She's now just a bullet sponge that distracts the enemy when I'm raiding bases.
- You COULD go with the Introvert perk to experience the feel of the 'loner', but the moment you realize that the questlines revolves around having a companion forced onto you, you're better off without it. Why would they create a perk, but then force companions onto you like it's useless? It doesn't make any sense.

The only okayish thing that the game has to offer is it's side stories. There's a lot of depth that someone thought of when considering the faction based stories. The main story though, is alright. Just alright.

Although I haven't completed the game as of yet, I hear there's some interesting things with NG+. I don't intend to slog through another run of this game unless the DLC or someone in the modding scene makes something worthwhile.

Should you get the game? Meh, it's alright, it's nothing ground breaking.

11/15/23 update - The devs don't know what they're doing. They don't know balancing and they ruin the fun in games.

At the time of writing this they updated the vet to make him worse. I feel like a regular Guardsman than a 'Special Agent' now.

The Traitor's Curse is that FatShark betrays it's player base all the time.

tl;dr
The game is in an 'alright' position. The Lore and Story are good, but the game itself is in a weirdly rising position.

As a game, it's sorta in a mixed state, but the most recent updates have allowed the game to have some really good things going for it. If you really want to be invested into the game, just be ready to grind, slay heretics and pray to the God Emperor for good rolls.

I've spent the majority of my hours as a Veteran main with 3 completed builds, and although Vet is kinda nerfed through patch 14, I'm actually making through the high difficulties and carrying the randoms that I'm with. My second main is Ogryn, and I'm slowly almost done with building him (currently level 25).

What got me to get Darktide

As a person who plays Magic the Gathering frequently and has only had an introduction to the 40k franchise through physical cards, Darktide will broaden your horizons. There's a lot of lorebuilding within Darktide that the game does justice to make up for the price if you're ever wanting to get into 40k. I like it and I'm planning on building my own Astra Militarum unit dedicated for the penal rejects that come from this.

If you're a person who enjoys PvE shooters, Pick Zealot or Veteran. They're the most in line with PvE shooters that you can go through with as a starter character. (But don't forget that vet is nerfed in this current play).

Pros:

• Lorebuilding. - Lots of lore tossed around between interactions of the 12 character types (4 classes 3 personalities), the Morningstar cast and the overall world.
  
• Weapons. - The majority of weapons feel satisfying, I mean, the Boltgun is in the game for infantry hands to wield. hehe funi oggi rok go slap
  
• Cosmetics. - It's kinda controversial at the moment to put this one here because most of the 'good' looking cosmetics are behind paywall but I buy them for the drip. They look nice and have some cool effects with them. I wouldn't fully recommend buying ALL the sets though. Just pick and choose what looks nice to your reject. To add, as a person who's gone through multiple games where P2W dlcs always have a balls grip on a game, I'm fine with buying that Kreig drip for my Ogryn and Vet.
  
• Look and Feel. - This game comes close to Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes to the way the setting looks. When you're on the ground in Atoma you really feel like it's a really metalpunk place and that you're just a small cog pushing through a flesh machine.
  
• Replayablility. - With 4 classes with unique skills and styles there's a lot of combinations that you can go with for a build. Although it's only from the most recent update it really does add a lot to the game on how you can run things.
  
• The Sound track is Based. - You'll get in and see why.

Cons:

• Gameplay. - This game is hard to get into. It's not going to be 'Payday 2' or 'Left 4 Dead'. I also hear that FatShark's other game, Vermintide 2, is similar in it's extent (but I've never played that game). There's a lot of in game mechanics that the game doesn't openly present to you when you jump on in. If you want to take the time to understand how the game works go ahead and watch some videos on it. My tip for this is that even though there are guns (even as a Veteran main), you're always going to be using your melee, so don't get mad when you get slammed by a horde for not swapping to your melee.
  
• Crafting System. - Most likely the most hated system in the entirety of the game. Sure, praise the God Emperor for a blessing, but RNG based weapon stats to RNG based perks on weapons force you to grind out crafting materials. If you hear someone as a 'Plasteel Addict' you know they're always grinding out for some on higher difficulties. My tip for anyone that's getting into the game: Don't go rolling for good weapons until you get a character to level 30 and understand how to get the most crafting materials. You can actually do pretty well without 'god weapons' as long as you know the basics of dodging, horde control and how to deal with specials.
  
• The Player Base. - There's actually a big portion of players that don't understand the games mechanics and will always cost you a good run. But, that's not their fault, because the game doesn't teach you enough. Because of this, certain runs just die because of the lack of game knowledge and pacing (ie: Touching a Deamon Host. Don't touch them. They're only for 1 achievement and offer no bonuses, and they'll end your party pretty quickly if you don't know how to manage them). I would recommend playing with friends, but I have none so I always have a laugh when I clutch the team.
  
• The Overarching Story. - Kinda bad and waterwashed ngl, wish there was more to the actual story, but I have some small hopes about it. We'll see what the future holds.

Overall the Game is Alright, but I do have some worries.

The game is good, it provides an experience like no other, and is my PvE escape due to the fact that Payday 3 has been a joke at launch. It's gotten me deeper into the rabbit hole of the 40k franchise and I'm pretty hopeful for what I'm getting myself into.

However, there's a glaring issue with what the devs have planned, and recently, it's been a bunch of wildcard nerfs and buffs to random things. I just hope that they stick to what players can handle and at least attend to the crafting system's mechanics. The game itself is very hard to fully understand unless you put a lot of time into it, but we're all rejects to the God Emperor himself anyways, so I'm sure you'll go out and watch a video or two.

I also pray to the God Emperor that FatShark never goes the route of 'Unlimited DLC works' I'm not willing to go through another Payday 2.

Final note: If you're wondering how to fully understand the deeper mechanics of the game, Darktide is moddable. You can find lots of QoL mods on Nexus Mods as well as the right tutorials to mod your game to tell you what you need to know. Just remember to enable your mods after every update as mods are disabled by default.

This review might sound positive, but I wish steam would allow users to leave neutral reviews, as game development is big mess and usually is controlled by lots of factors.

But first, let me start off with some advice for those unaware that we live in the era where good developers are controlled by corpo overlords.


Don't:
Go in with high expectations (don't buy into the hype)
Pre-order
Listen to all reviews (as most of them are kinda one-sidedly negative.)

Do:
Go in with friends from the start (that have or have not played the game). (this is a requirement)
Buy the game when it's on sale (your wallet will thank you).
Have fun with what you make of it (you'll enjoy it more).

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Backstory stuff

I bought this game because of the 'UbisoftBacktracksToSteam' joke. I pinged some friends on Discord to hop on and join me and we did. The first night was actually pretty fun and we had a nice 4 hours of gameplay that was genuinely enjoyable. I noticed some small things here and there that I'll list, but truthfully, this game is meant to be played with a good group of 4 to just mess around with in the world. You can make it as realistic as you want, but tune it to your own style so you can enjoy it. That's the glory of what they had, and thank the beta testers for being the ones experiencing the hardships. Not us.

-=-
Blah Blah Boring review stuff Blah Blah

Story - You'll get pulled out of it the moment it starts. So, as such, don't care about it.

Gameplay - 3rd person shooter with 1st person toggle ADS. It's managable, not much else to talk about.

Difficulty - You make the game how difficult you want it to be. The AI is jank at sometimes and there could be some interaction changes, but it makes do.

Graphics - Actually quite amazing. The guns look good and they work, but that's expected from a corporate developed video game. The poor 3d graphics guys get whipped into submission until they can poop out a good product. We don't look at the npc player models though. They're kinda... not there.

PvP - Don't care about it. Was never a PvP guy in heavily story/environmentally based games. Call of Duty and other shooter games exist for that reason and I simply do not care for any of that.

Co-op - Good enough. Sits well with a group of good friends, you make it as enjoyable as you want it.

-=-
Conclusion:

I went into this game like any other far cry, watch dogs, ubisoft formula game with shooting in it:

Go in, shoot things, kill things, loot things, get out, rejoice.

Game did that much and I'm okay with that. As long as I can play with friends that's cool too.

Reject Sandstorm, return to source.

EAC is bad, other games still have hackers and EAC doesn't detect them lmao

Just play Tarkov.