I have a Colt M1911 and an empty magazine.
I holster the pistol so I can load my bullets into the magazine.
Taking the pistol back out, I insert the magazine, tapping for good measure, and pull back the slide to chamber a round.
Just in case, I pull back the slide a little bit to be sure there was no failure to feed.
I holster the pistol and shoot myself in the foot.

10/10

This game is essentially a fully-fleshed-out version of the original Receiver. The inventory system has been improved with the addition of a visible grid, firearms are now available in more detail and more variety, and there are a few new types of enemies.

Unfortunately, this has come at the cost of my ability to one-shot turrets by hitting them in their big green box and rendering them unable to fire. Turrets are also quicker to start firing, and come in both the original constantly-circling variety and the stereotypical panning-and-stopping variety. In general, turrets are now a more substantial threat.

However, the flying taser drones have been nerfed a bit, because hitting them in their non-critical areas makes them more vulnerable to collision damage. They also appear more fragile in general, as shots that do not hit the white fuselage appear to be able to damage the rotors such that they can no longer fly. I never observed this to occur in Receiver 1, although I can't say I tried to hit them in non-critical areas, so it's possible that it can happen and that I just didn't see it.

Another advance is the variance in how objects behave in relation to the bullets fired around and at them. Glass breaks and degrades the trajectory of bullets. Plywood and curtains will not save you from being turned into swiss cheese. The world itself is much more detailed and interesting to look at.

The game's core strengths are mostly inherited from its predecessor, namely, the firearm mechanics. I also find the storytelling to be well-done in spite of its exclusively audio and text log form, especially with regards to the suicidal tapes.

As someone with a lot of hands-on experience with suicidal ideation, the suicidal people's narratives were very reflective of the sort of thinking I experience while suicidal: despair at the material condition of the world, guilt for the burden inflicted upon others, and the overarching feeling that nothing can be done other than to give up.

It's refreshing to see a depiction of depression that treats it more or less as it exists in reality. Often fictional narratives will depict depression as a temporary ailment that results from inconvenient circumstances, and the sufferer is invariably cured the moment the plot macguffin is obtained or the conflict of the day is resolved. In this way depression and suicidality are framed as reactions to circumstances, but they are not framed as self-perpetuating.

In reality, depression and suicidal ideation can occur for a number of reasons. Arbitrary biological interactions, nihilistic sociological conditions, and personal tragedy all constitute potential reasons for the formation of depression. However, even after the initiating circumstances are removed the depression almost always remains. Far from relying upon circumstances to sustain themselves, the thought processes that constitute depression actively work to create circumstances to sustain themselves.

Depression actively distorts one's perception of reality, such that positive experiences are dulled or suppressed entirely, whereas negative experiences are amplified and extrapolated from, forming the hopeless world of suidicality. At its most severe, suicidality subjugates every attempt at conscious thought to serve its ends - even to the extent that a suicidal individual can neither picture their life as better, nor relate to themselves at a previous point in time when their life was better.

In these instances, conscious recognition of the irrationality of depressive thoughts is not enough. The knowledge that one's perception is being interfered with does nothing to dull the harmful experience of living within that perception. The game carries this idea into its gameplay with the tapes of the suicidal individuals. The player (both as a character and as a real person) knows that these people's narratives aren't coming from a reliable source, the player even knows that these people's thoughts are being actively manipulated by the game's antagonist. But none of this renders them immune to the tapes' harmful effects, because nobody is immune. Knowledge in this instance does not denote control, and so the player is forced to take action to prevent the tapes from ending their life.

This is another concept that I think the game executes masterfully. The game intentionally teaches its players to identify suicidality, and to take immediate action to remove their ability to harm themselves. The player must internalize the fact that ideas can represent a direct threat to their safety, in the same manner that a turret or drone can. This is the exact sort of mental process needed in people who are actually suicidal, so that they too can remove themselves from danger. The game underscores this by explicitly detailing how every individual depicted as suicidal took action later on to distance themselves from their firearms until they recovered, for example by giving custody of their gun safe to a friend or pawning their gun. It's also worth noting that this mechanic ties in directly with the game's narrative regarding the relationship between mind and body. In the game's world, an injury to one is an injury to all both - an idea expressed both in the story and the gameplay.

Of course, it's impossible to review this game without talking about the firearms themselves. In response to criticism, it's commonly remarked by other gun owners that their guns are "tools", in an attempt to strip away the popular image of guns as evil killing machines. However, I often observe these same people refusing to treat their guns as tools. Instead, I see them proudly boast about how prepared they are to kill some hypothetical, exaggerated boogeyman. I see them adorn their "tools" with ostentatious decoration and provocative writing. I see them post pictures on facebook, cosplaying with their plate carriers, single-point slings, and wrap-around oakleys. If they truly regarded their firearms as "tools", then I doubt they would f3tishize them in such a manner.

This game, on the other hand, is quite happy to walk the walk. It has the most sterile and sanitized presentation of firearms I've ever seen. In this game, your firearm is not a guarantee of protection. It is not a magic wand that spits out invisible lasers in exchange for decreasing a number on the side of the screen. Your gun is just as able (and for the first 5 minutes, probably just as likely) to kill you as any enemy in the game. The firearms you are given are entirely neutral objects. Instead of talking to you about how great they are and how you're going to end the robot invasion with them, the tapes tell you about the details of your firearm's history, and how to use it safely. When the game gives you a gun and tells you to holster it, if you're anything like me you probably just tapped ~ without thinking and ended up shooting yourself. The first experience the game gives you about your one and only weapon isn't about using it to defeat your enemies, but rather about the consequences of failing to use it carefully.

In this manner the game is as much about learning to use firearms properly as it is about surviving in the robot-infested stream of architectural consciousness you inhabit. The revolvers you start with are simple and straightforward, with slight variations in their operation. They aren't subject to the vast majority of mechanical failures possible within the game, but they suffer from a lower capacity. Additionally, if you start with any blocked chambers you're stuck with them for the rest of the run. Unlocking the semiautomatic pistols is an advantage in both of these respects, but it forces the player to learn how to deal with various mechanical failures rapidly, often under stress.

As this review is so long I have to continue it in a comment, as I have run out of characters.

In the first 5 minutes I managed to shoot myself in the foot.
Differences so far:
-More enemies
-More variation in levels
-Better graphics
-More interactions
-Increased chance of killing yourself due to stupidity
-Narrator is different (you can hear him at the end of the trailer)
Make sure that your gun is safe before putting it away.

In a word, Buy. In two words, Buy it. In a third word, Now.
I'm a Firearms instructor, including teaching Concealed Carry classes, a gunsmith, and have worked at a gun range for many years. The insights (for lack of a better word) that this gives into gun safety, the operation of firearms, the history of their development, the moral questions posed by certain training regiments, the background of certain firearms laws, its amazingly accurate, spot on. While there are some qualms I may have with the mechanics, I understand that certain liberties have to be taken when trying to instill gun safety and self defense basics. I've seen some reviews for example take umbrage with the ignoring of for example the Glock's trigger safety and other safety mechanisms that would prevent negligent discharges when holstering or unholstering. The problem with these arguments is that it ignores the point the game is making, which is that all it takes is one moment where you don't put all of your attention to the handling of a firearm for you to make the last mistake you will ever make. I don't want to spoil too much, but to give an example of the amazing points the game can make in the mirror, you see your character is a silhouette target, this at first may seem to be simply a quirk but it will feed into one of the tapes you can find which points out statistics from world war 2, where soldiers often had trouble shooting to kill a fellow human. Current military training focuses on ensuring that troops are more prepared for the fact that they will be expected and required to kill in order to survive. One of the changes made was to institute Silhouette targets instead of simple bullseye. The game mentions that this can lead to soldiers no longer seeing the enemy as humans but as silhouettes, to the point where all people become silhouettes, even the one you see in the mirror.
A non spoiler example of attention to detail is that sometimes when you press the extractor on a revolver, not all of the spent cartridges will simply fall out, some will be stuck requiring multiple presses of the extractor rod in order to free them up. That being said, attempting such attention to detail can cause pitfalls. Full disclosure I only experienced one such example, that being that when looking directly up with the cylinder swung out on a revolver, cartridges will fall out. This at first glance was another example of attention to detail, however even spent cartridges will simply fall out. In real life, the use of an extractor on a revolver is necessary because when fired, the cartridge will expand to contact the walls of the chamber and become stuck. It is a small incredibly nitpicky thing to point out, and I point it out not to detract from the game, but in the hopes that it'll be changed. One last thing I wanted to point out is that one of the tapes discusses the laws of gun safety. An example it give is that if you are training at the range and a hot shell casing falls down your shirt, will you be able to keep the muzzle pointed down range, and would you be able to keep yourself from negligently discharging your firearm at a target you were not intending to destroy. I wish I could count the amount of times I had a loaded gun pointed at me while working at the gun range because of this exact event occurring… (And when I get angry at the person, somehow IM THE JACKWAGON FOR GETTING ANGRY BECAUSE YOU POINTED A LOADED GUN AT ME, BECAUSE OH ITS JUST A SIMPLE MISTAKE THAT TOTALLY COULDN'T HAVE RESULTED IN MY GETTING ****ING SHOT!) I could go on for at least another few characters in this review but I don't want to spoil too much of what makes this game so amazing, at least in the mechanics involved.
Now I've seen reviews which point to the incredible difficulty in progressing in the game. I fully agree that it is unbelievably difficult, infuriating, and may or may not have resulted in me breaking one of my computer mice. That being said, the mouse certainly deserved it as it was a manifestation of the threat and was preventing me from completing my training and becoming a receiver. If you are having trouble with the difficulty of the game, one could look up how to access cheats. I do not recommend it though, as the game, while incredibly difficult, is very rewarding. I almost broke a fifth mouse after throwing my arms up in celebration after completing the final stage.
Once again, to summarize this review, buy the game. You will regret not buying it sooner, and if you don't buy it you will lie in bed at night wondering what could have possessed you to pass up such a masterpiece.

this is an absolutely fantastic game filled with intricate gunplay and thoughtful notes of gun logic as well as the way that firearms and their owners are perceived in the media, as well as many hot button topics surrounding firearms and the problems around them (such as suicide).

Its very simplistic, however very intricate and after playing for 12 hours, i still have not passed all 5 levels in this randomly generated world.

However, for the love of all things sacred and holy, please, PLEASE, GET RID OF THE DOUBLE TAP W TO SPRINT. Too many times has my character sprinted off the edge of a building or overshot a short jump just because tapping W to adjust my positioning. its enraging. Shift to sprint is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ standard among all other first person shooters and such, and while there is a feature to use Shift to sprint in this game as well, it does not offer the option to disable the W to sprint.

PLEASE. PLEASE disable this feature. its kind of stupid and its completely unnecessary for any game, especially for one that will harshly punish you by setting you back 20 minutes because the game ♥♥♥♥♥♥ you over on things that shouldve been simple, such as jumping from one platform to the next or trying to edge yourself closer to a ledge.

you can both use & kill yourself with a hi point

Game is very fun.

But punishing a player by losing a rank to exit the game is not right.

This is a long review because it pains me to give this game a thumbs down. There's a lot of stuff I really like, and I hope the developers will listen to feedback.



The mechanics are straight from Receiver 1, so if you liked that you'll mostly be into this. The visuals have been upgraded, the GUI looks nicer, etc. The sound design is punchy, and the guns are legitimately deafening (though there is an setting to reduce this).

The trouble starts with the rank system - if you collect a set amount of tapes (5 in the early ranks), you rank up. If you die, you rank down. After a lot of playing around, I've really come to the conclusion that I don't find the ranking system fun. In honesty, it feels like it's just there to pad the game out. New guns are locked behind the rank system, so you won't get to experience them if you don't rank up - and higher ranks are exponentially difficult. You go down a rank if you die no matter how well you were doing - even if you were a single tape away from ranking up, you'll ALWAYS go down a rank.

Another glaring issue is that you get a really inconsistent experience throughout the levels. There's ranks where you'll be drowning in ammunition and there's almost no enemies, and there will be ranks where enemies drop the smallest amount of ammo possible and you're starved for rounds.

Receiver 2 prides itself on its attention to detail on gun mechanics. I'm not sure if I've seen another game actually simulate negligent discharges, stove pipes, etc. Unfortunately, Receiver 2 won't always give you enough ammunition during a rank to let you play the game, and you'll end up playing an extremely tedious stealth game.

Receiver 2 adds a 'hacking' mini-game which involves you getting within hugging distance of a robot and precisely tapping a key and keeping it within a sweet spot. Tap too much and you'll be detected (and the turret / drone you're trying to hack will try and shoot you). There's also a timer system, so you cannot take your time with the hacking - you're on the clock to complete the hack.

That sounds pretty in depth for a little side mechanic, but the reality is that it's pointless. The margin of error for hacking is very slim, and the price of failure (death and deranking) isn't worth saving a singular bullet - especially when you will always get at least 1 bullet back from shooting a turret. There's a new type of enemy that I won't spoil, but I bring it up because it (along with drones) aren't always possible to hack in the first place due to them being out of reach. This ties into my earlier stated thing about the game not giving you enough ammo to have fun: hacking feels like it's a band-aid solution to not balancing the amount of ammo you give the player.


The next section talks about the firearms in the game. If you don't want spoilers, skip to the last paragraph of the
review.

- The S&W Model 10 and Colt Detective Special are identical for gameplay. One of their cylinders spins clockwise, and the other one spins counterclockwise. I really don't get why there's two of these, other than to make it 'more likely' to get a revolver when you 'roll' for a random gun at the start of the rank. There's tons of unique revolvers out there, so I have no idea why these two, almost identical, revolvers were chosen.

- The Glock 17's trigger safety is entirely ignored by the game, and the in-game explanation for this is pretty lame. Otherwise, the most interesting feature of this firearm - the full auto fun switch - is brought down by the fact that the game doesn't give you enough ammo to use it. This just feels like missed opportunities.

- The M1911, P226, M9, and Hi-Point are all good fun to play with. They all differ slightly in their operation, their quirks around safety/decocking. Unfortunately, the 'blocked' magazines mechanic start to make all of these semi-auto guns feel same-y -- you'll almost always end up with a magazine that can only take 5-7ish rounds.

- I've only ever had the Desert Eagle once in 9 hours of playing, so it's hard to comment on it. I'm not sure if the gun selection is truly random, or biased at certain ranks, but it certainly feels like some firearms are less likely to be picked.

- The final handgun in the game is the Colt Single Action Army, and it's a good time. I've seen some people get overly upset about it due it's exceptionally quirky operation, but it's a great fit for Receiver. It's a shame that this final handgun is only accessible if you get to the last rank in the game.



Some closing thoughts:
Writing this review, I realize I never bother with extra magazines. Since most of the enemies are static, you often just unload your current magazine and reload it with loose rounds. Because so many magazines end up being bad/blocked, you give up on them and end up just using one. There is a limit to the amount of loose rounds you can carry (something like 25ish?), you could theoretically use spare magazines to carry more ammo overall - if the game were more generous with ammo.

It bothers me that the Single Action Army is the final handgun. Removing the Colt Detective Special and replacing it with this would add a lot of variety to the early game.

The blocked cylinders / 'bad magazine' mechanics feel misguided, and the lore explanations feel shoehorned. Blocked cylinders make you resent starting with revolvers since there's no way to fix them during a rank - where as you can (sometimes) find good magazines during a rank. It ultimately slows the gameplay, since you often only start with 1 magazine. You spent less time exploring and shooting, and more time tediously unloading and reloading a magazine is could've held upwards of 15-17 rounds, if it weren't blocked.

It bothers me that the developers limited themselves to handguns again. There's actually a tape in the game that talks about shotguns, and the mechanics of Receiver would be an amazing fit for a shotgun.



Overall:
I can't recommend Receiver 2 over Receiver 1. The mechanics are technically more detailed, the visuals are nicer, but the ranking system seriously detracts from the rest of the game. The game wants you to appreciate the firearm simulation, but you often don't get enough ammo to have fun with it. Some new firearms are interesting, and others feel like missed opportunities.

I've played the original receiver, and was insanely hyped for this game. However, I feel like a lot of the choices made by Wolfire in this are questionable at best and just arbitrary at worst. Here are some that I found particularly egregious:

This version introduces a ranking system, where every time you collect all tapes you go up a rank, and every time you die, you go down one. That by itself is not terrible, but considering that the difficulty and complexity of the levels and weapons goes up with each level, it becomes a slog where you replay the levels that you've already finished several times.

Another thing that really pisses me off as someone who knows about guns is the fact that Negligently Discharging is WAYYYY too common. It's standard practice for firearm users to keep their fingers OFF the triggers until ready to fire, and even in-universe, that should've been conveyed to Receivers during their training, right? Surprisingly, no. Pull out your gun too quickly from your holster, and say goodbye to one of your toes. This could be remedied by putting your gun in a safe state prior to holstering or by holding the holster/unholster option for longer, which is neat in theory, but in execution, you'll end up NDing when you shouldn't, and not NDing when you could've sworn that you drew too quick.

Yet another problem I have is with how the threat echo mechanic is introduced. This is where occasionally, some of the tapes will play pretty messed up ♥♥♥♥ before making the player shoot themselves. This can be avoided by putting the gun in a safe state, and is easy to telegraph in future encounters. My real qualm with it is the presentation, or lack thereof. Your first threat echo happens early in the game, when you're not too familiar with how the tapes go, and you only really learn what happened after getting killed, where the game will give you a help prompt about it. I don't mind the threat echo, I think its a neat mechanic. My problem is that it can kill a run if you dont know what it is.

Something that's been ramped up a lot since the original is falling damage. Back in Receiver 1 you could fall a few feet and be fine, but in this, the damage has been cranked up to 11. You can't fall more than what seems like three feet without taking damage, and any more than roughly 5 will kill you. You can *kinda* get around this by crouch-walking off a surface and then un-crouching in midair, but its still a royal pain in the ass to get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up by what feels like a negligible drop.

Something that I thought was especially arbitrary was the capacity limits. This can be seen in the screenshots, but for the lazy among you, for some magazines and nearly every revolver you'll use, one or more of the chambers, or half or more of the magazine will be unusable. This just feels like more arbitrary difficulty for the player.

This took all the difficulty of the first game, injected it with steroids, hooked it up to a car battery and then let it loose. If that, along with accurate weapons simulation is your thing, then have fun. If not, play the original. It's still hard, but it doesnt feel like it has as much crap as this.

I would love to see a difficulty tweaker, where you can toggle stuff like random capacity and ammunition abundance, but I'm unsure if the devs would be willing/able to add that. Fingers crossed. Until then, I don't really plan on playing this game at all.

One thing I will say though is that the storyline and the feel of the guns is very well done. I want to get engrossed into this, but I just dont have the time and patience for it.

TL;DR, Courtesy of @Drewfus

Arbitrary difficulty:
1. Ranking system
2. Random low-capacity mags

Questionable decisions:
3. "Threat Echo" tapes (suicide)
4. High falling damage
5. Common negligent discharge

A friend said "you like guns, give this a whirl". Long story short, I wasn't disappointed and it's worth the money, sale or not.

The game is very in-depth in how you operate different handguns and troubleshoot malfunctions. While it gives the disclaimer that its not a replacement for actual real-life handgun training, the methods you use are pretty on-the-money, having cleared double-feeds and Failure to Ejects myself. However I'd recommend checking out the first Receiver before you commit to buying this one, its currently $1 USD and it'll help you determine if you'll enjoy this game or not.

Precision and situational awareness are key to winning, as well as critical decision making. Sometimes ammo preservation is better than engagement, and sometimes the reverse is true. Running out of bullets puts this game halfway into the horror genre, despite the enemies you face. It does have some very heavy topics it talks about, and they executed it in a way that feels too close for comfort if you've ever had to deal with it. "The Threat" is a very apt way of describing it. However, it does it just right to not come off as preachy.